Guidelines for the paper

• Bring some originality - give your opinion,

• Substantiate each argument with a "why?"
• You can use
o Use a movie quote
o name of author and book
o Story for introduction
• Give historical perspective - 1 page max
• Choose a topic where you can argue in a reasonable and balanced manner
• Find the spirit of the topic
• Argument should be coherent.
• Present oppositie side
• Avoid using contraction - it's , should've etc
• Write the questions that you want to answer in your essay while brainstorming - 5/6
of them
• Introduction - Hook, Thesis, Background - should be positive unlike "the world is in
chaos, or pollution will kill us"
• Build ideas - real example, established wisdom and empirical proof
• Conclusion - Suggestion, Reiterate your core argument, Positive, Reserve best for
here
• Writing - use parallelism, use as less numbers as possible . 2/3 should be used as two
thirds
• 2 essay approach -
o 80 min for each essay then. (60 min for writing + 20 min for thinking)
o First 10 min choose the topic.
o Last 10 min to revise.
o 7-7.5 pages
• 1 essay approach
o 14-15 pages
o first 10 min topic
o next 20 min content
o 90 min write
o 10 min revise
• DON'T FORGET
o WHAT IS BEING TESTED - YOUR VALUE SYSTEM, YOUR
CAPACITY TO ARGUE, YOUR PERSONALITY. YOUR
KNOWLEDGE IS NOT BEING TESTED
 o THERE IS NO RIGHT AND WRONG SIDE IF YOU CAN ARGUE
COHERENTLY
o NEVER GIVE SHALLOW ARGUMENT.
o QUANTITY DOES NOT MATTER. IF YOU CAN ARGUE IN
CONCISE MANNER, THAT IS EVEN BETTER
• Reference
o “Why this might be the best time for long term economic reforms in
India?” - vajiram, 27/2/15
o UHC - Vision , essay 2
o Freedom of expression, essay 2
• Dimensions
o SPECLIH – Social (Education, Health, Women, CHIldren, other
vulnerable groups), Political, Philosophy, Environment, Economic,
Cultural (beliefs, attitude, values, ethics ), Linguistic/Local,
International, Humanistic, history, Governance, Administration
• Stakeholdersje
o Individual, Family, Community , Society , Nation,

Openings
• In a remarkable discussion with Andre Malraux (french statesman, novelist and
misinter), when asked what his principal taks are, JLN answered " my first task is to
create a new modern state in an ancient civilisation and my second task to to create a
secular state on the basis of profoundly religious society"
• We do have greater azaadi of choice now but do we have the swaraj (command over
your life ) as engaged by mahatma gandhi over a century ago
▪ are your dreams really your own or are you flying on auto
pilot?
▪ are you planning to struggle for opporutnies or are you
inspired to create new possibilities?
▪ do you feels wrong enough to speak truth to power?
o swaraj is the self confidence the sense of self empowerment that enables
us to explore answers to such questions
• cascading collapse of the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and the rapid
unfolding of information-driven globalisation and terrorism have since raised the
spectre of disintegration for most multicultural nations. But this also makes India a
mystery wrapped in a puzzle!
 o How has India, in face of daunting conditions of abject poverty, deep-
seated parochialism, growing economic disparities, incessant communal
and caste violence, continued to stand out as the world's largest
experiment in building multicultural democratic federalism?
• India is, today, a uniquely attractive investment destination, driven by a rare
alignment of political, economic, demographic and geopolitical considerations
• The most serious challenge faced by India today is the conflict between violent and
non-violent approach of development
• Maithili Sharan Gupt’s immortal lines hum kaun thae, kya ho gaye hain, aur
kya honge abhi, aao vichare aaj mil kar yeh samasyaen sabhi ((Who were we?
Who have we become? And what more shall we be? Come, let us together
meditate on all these conundrums)
• The landscape of the contemporary world in economic, technological, global and
social content is transforming quickly. this has posed challenges…
• 2017 is prime number - But it’s also an occasion to think about the next 70 years—
to 2087.Like 2017, 2087 is a prime number.
• “The notion of human right builds on our shared humanity. These rights are not
derived from the citizenship of any country, or the membership of any nation, but
are presumed to be claims or entitlements of every human being. They differ,
therefore, from constitutionally created rights guaranteed for specific people.”―
Amartya Sen, The Idea Of Justice
• As the 21st century unfolds, there are four strong winds blowing across the world
and converging to create an unprecedented storm which is challenging business and
government institutions that are not designed for these conditions.
o The first strong wind is the idea of free markets and capitalism.
o The second wind that has been gaining strength across the world is
respect for the rights of all human beings—white or black, male or
female, rich or poor.
o The third wind is a voice speaking loudly to us, literally out of the
Earth.
o The fourth wind, of more recent origin, is the gale force of information.
• With information flowing around and many more voices being heard, two major
concerns can be heard more loudly in this storm, about the way the world is
progressing.
o One is, “Our pattern of economic growth is not sustainable”.
o The other is, “Our pattern of economic growth is not fair”
 • India is ranked 116 out of 157 nations on a global index that assesses the
performance of countries towards achieving the ambitious sustainable development
goals (SDGs) in 2017 - by SDSN
• India occupies about 2.4% landmass and accounts for almost 17% of people with
about 27% BPL : Magnitude of challenges faced by India
• Many places in the world seem to be at the crossroads of several large issues, such
as the questions of:
o Do we want modernity or antiquity?
o What does modernity and the future look like?
o Do we want equality or subordination?
o Do we pursue self-interest or collective interest?
o Do we want isolation (self-sufficiency) or interwovenness
(codependency)?
Endings/Conclusion
• invest in youth under 30, invest in companies with less than 30 employees and see
the world change in 30 years - Jack Ma
• The question that Indias have to fins answer together are: what kind of county do we
want to be? what are the essential characteristics of the nation that we aspire to
have? what is the pace we want to occupy in the community of ativan? this must be
a share vision in order to motivate people to align their efforts to achieve it.
• Together we need to seek the answer that american theologian Reinhold Niebuhr
sought in his prayer
o "oh god give m he patience to accept the things i cannot change and the
course to change the things i can and wisdom to know the diferecen
• We must remember our idnepdence with pride but let us not forget the injustice
various communities are facing. how proud we should be then?
• The great son of India long ago, the Buddha said the the only real victory was one in
which all were equally victorious and there was defeat for no one. In the world today
the tis the only practical victory, Any other way will lead to disaster.
• India's success depends on the success of its individual citizens just as the progress
of humanity depends on shared progress of all nation as we work to life the nation;s
children out of poverty nd ignorance, we not just librate their talents and potential
through the power of excellent teaching and learning but also lay a rightful claim to
our position on the wold stage
• Legitimacy has to be earned the hard way - through good governance , transparency,
probity , lawfulness, justice , inclusivity and the capacity to demonstrate both even
day and in criss the tgovernemnt really is not just of and by but also for the people
• The solution lies in changing the attitude from 'you begin' to 'I initiate'.
• Don't fertilise the rocks. First make people less resistant in receiving and
processing information and then expect change in their attitude
• to address the challenges in the current conditions will require:‘pessimism of the
intellect and optimism of the will’: pessimism to assess the challenges ruthlessly,
and optimism to overcome them
• the threats to free speech are unlovely, dark and deep. And we have miles to go
before we sleep.
• India is 70; young among nations. But time is of the essence before it ages rapidly.
There is a real danger that India will be “too late.” Martin Luther King once wrote,
“We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the
fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such
a thing as being too late. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous
civilisations are written the pathetic words ‘too late.’”
• Only by working together towards common national goals can the centre and states
meet india's development challenges. maximum governance and minimum
government and competitive and cooperative federalism re critical to a achieving the
full potential and creating a modern India which bring prosperity to all of its 125
crore citizens
• August 15 as Samkalp Parva - to resolve to get something done for the nation by
2022 (siddhi)
• "need to sculpt a robust, high growth economy, an educated, ethical and shared
community, and an egalitarian society, as envisioned by Mahatma Gandhi and Deen
Dayal Upadhyay ji." "These are integral to our sense of humanism. This is the India
of our dreams, an India that will provide equality of opportunities. This will be the
India of the 21st century." - Kovind
• It is high time we inverted the dictum of Darwin and worked for a society which
would ensure survival of the weakest and perhaps the sickest too
• Justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. Poor are
protected, minorities respected and none go to bed fearing tomorrow
• The future has to be built on the foundations laid in the past and the present.
• “There has to be a will. Without follow- up action, this interest will just evaporate
into thin air.”
• असतो म ाँ स मय (Asato ma Sadgamaya)तमसो म ाँ योि तग मय (Tamaso ma
jyotirgamaya) मयोम अमतग
ृ ंमय(Mratyorma Amritgamaya)
o Means - From unrighteousness to righteousness From darkness to light
From mortality towards immortality
• Let all the shadows fade away! Let there be sunshine everywhere
• Loka Samasta Sukhino Bhavantu
o (Let the whole world be prosperous and peaceful)
• Sarve Bhavantu Sukhina (May all be Happy)
o Sarve Santu Niramaya (May all be without disease)
o Sarve Bhadrani Pashyantu (May all have well-being)
o Maa Kaschit Dukh Bhagh Bhavet (May none have misery of any sort)
• On this 70th anniversary of Indian independence, all Indians must rededicate
themselves to an inclusive, pluralist, democratic, and just India – the India that
Mahatma Gandhi fought to free.
• Need and want are two entire different terms. Need is something which we
imperatively require for future prosperity while want is simple aspirational thought
which may too result in prosperity
• It’s rare that the right thing and the necessary thing are the same thing — and the
chance may not come again.
• Victor Hugo once said, "no power on earth can stop an idea whose time has come”.
the emergence of India as a major economic power in the world happens to be one
such idea. Let the whole world hear it loud and clear. India is now wide awake. We
shall prevail. We shall overcome.
• Each country is faced with moments in history which they can seize to change the
destiny of their citizens for good. China did so in 1970s under the leadership of
Deng Xiaoping. Today is India’s time!
• In its most pessimistic, dehumanized form, the Fourth Industrial Revolution may
indeed have the potential to “robotize” humanity and thus to deprive us of our heart
and soul.
o But as a complement to the best parts of human nature—creativity,
empathy, stewardship—it can also lift humanity into a new collective
and moral consciousness based on a shared sense of destiny.
o It is incumbent on us all to make sure the latter prevails. We should thus
grasp the opportunity and power we have to shape the Fourth Industrial
Revolution and direct it toward a future that reflects our common
objectives and values.
• While it is important to support diversity in culture and religion, it is also important
to support diversity in views and thoughts. After all freedom of speech and thought
is also a fundamental right in our democracy.
• Indian nationalism is founded on an idea: the idea of an ever-ever land, emerging
from an ancient civilization, united by a shared history, sustained by pluralist
 democracy. This land imposes no narrow conformity on its citizens. You can be
many things and one thing. You can be a good Muslim, a good Keralite, and a good
Indian all at once.
• Aims should be to wipe every tear from every eye
• A nation is very young at 68. India has the will, energy, intellect, values and unity to
claim the 21st century. The vision to win the battle of freedom from poverty is set;
The journey will seem formidable only to those without conviction. As an old saying
goes " SIDDHIR BHAVATI KARMAJA", which means, "SUCCESS IS BORN
OUT OF ACTION". Now is the time for action.
• We have to make India's development journey a "jan andolan" as Gandhiji did to
freedom struggle; everyone must feel he or she is working or India's progress
• If India misses the bus once more, it will be a long, long time before we are able to
catch the next one because buses are moving much faster today than ever before and
they are travelling on highways that we could not have imagined even five years
ago. A session on solar cell technology in Davos and another on the use of
holograms in medical science made me feel I had come from another planet. The
world is no longer what it was but alas India is exactly as she was. - tavleen
• We should build a new social contract in new and rapidly growing India that we
seek a country and world in which no child will sleep hungry, no child will sleep
under the open sky, no child will be sent to work instead of a school no person will
be subjected to discrimination or violence because of her identity, no person will be
denied free, good-quality healthcare, and no old person will have to work or beg to
live with dignity - Harsh mander
• India is a nation of a billion people. A nation’s progress depends upon how its
people think. It is thoughts which are transformed into actions. India has to think as
a nation of a billion people.- Kalam, 2020
• For better or worse, India is where the future will be made. Let’s get it right.
• it is worthwhile to keep in mind that from one way of looking, the Republic is a
bonafide miracle. Few people gave us a chance. And yet here we are.
• Antyodaya - Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya’s concept of serving the last man in the
queue
• "Garibon ki Unnati” (Poverty Eradication), "Kisaano ki Samriddhi” (Farmers’
Prosperity) and "Yuvaon ko Rojgaar” (Massive Employment Generation) - Govt’s
aim as per president speech
• Today is better than yesterday, and there is hope that tomorrow will be brighter than
today; and in many homes, mothers and wives are teaching their sons and husbands
how to change diapers
 • John F Kennedy in mind - "ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you
can do for your country"
•
India
• Data
• Glory
o We are a land of belonging, not blood.
o Indian nationalism is founded on an idea: the idea of an ever-ever land,
emerging from an ancient civilization, united by a shared history,
sustained by pluralist democracy. This land imposes no narrow
conformity on its citizens. You can be many things and one thing. You
can be a good Muslim, a good Keralite, and a good Indian all at once.
o Four confluences are central to our cultural development—between the
Aryan and Dravidian civilizations; between Vedic philosophy and the
Buddhist revolt against it; between Hinduism and Islam; and finally
between European and Indian cultures.
o almost all the climatic regions in the world are represented in India—
roughly in the same ratio as the global distribution of such geographical
zones.- Kalam, 2020
o India had existed as a loose confederation for much of its history. It was
a laissez-faire nation in every sense.
o India as a uniquely open-source republic,
o If America is a melting pot, then to me India is a thali
o The existence of India is a daily plebiscite in itself
o The wonder that was India - Basham - tried to convince his publisher to
change it to The wonder that is india
o There is not a thought that is being thought in the West or the East that
is not active in some Indian mind. E. P. THOMPSON, the late British
historian
o T. N. Ninan, one of the country’s most respected editors, calls India the
“one percent society
• Achievement
o Indian civilisation has survived for 5000 years because of the spirit of
unity, tolerance and respect for diversity
o IMF -India is a bright spot in a global economy. the world is eagerly
waiting to witness the rise of asian elephant.
 o India was an experiment that Winston Churchill thought implausible.
“India is merely a geographical expression,” he once dismissively
barked. “It is no more a single country than the Equator
o India ranks 22 in English proficiency index above France, CHIna and
Spain
o Indians are compassionate, we are kind-hearted and often generous as
well.
o Multiplicity is our collective strength, which must be preserved at all
costs - Pranab Mukherjee
o NITI aayog transformation agenda: india has changed in following
ways
▪ Demography - young, largest population
▪ Economy - grown more than 100 times
▪ Private enterprise - from licence raj to appellate raj
▪ globalisation
▪ states - central role in development
▪ technology - digitisation, infrastructure,s service delivery
o At one point in time It was banned to travel broad via sea in Hinduism.
o India is virtually the only post colonial national to sustain a system of
parliamentary government for over fifty years after independence - BC
o Even in most dangerous times more than 50% India was comfortably at
peace - bc
o Indian Nationalism has not been based on a shared language, religion or
ethnic identity. perhaps a common enemy - european colonialism.
o Amir khusro - if there is heaven on earth, it is here only
• Problems
o India has historically been a strong society with a weak state -
Gurcharan Das
o India is in perpetually take off stage -
o India for many political intents and social purposes is a nation that is a
work in progress.
o India has given a higher priority to stability than it has to efficiency. -
edward luce
o We have become a nation content with accepting a leader foisted upon
us not because of his proven leadership qualities or dynamism, but by
virtue of his loyalty to an organization or its high command. We are a
nation that has come to accept its topmost civil servant not because of
 his ability to motivate, innovate or introduce initiative into what was
possibly the best bureaucracy in the world, but by virtue of his seniority,
and the number of years he has served the establishment. We are a
nation that will accept a chief minister not because the legislators of the
majority party of that state see him as a naturally elected leader, but
because some remote central committee would like to helicopter down
their own lackey. We are a nation that will nominate a scientist to our
highest scientific organization not because of his proven research
findings, but because some decadent technician recruited in the
scientific cadre decided he had ‘arrived’. And finally, we are a nation
that has forgotten the skill of winning gold medals in international
events because we do not choose a team of the finest calibre, but would
rather have one affiliated with the nation’s power corridors - Vinod Rai
• Suggestion
o Vision 2020: A vision for new millennium - Kalam
o President speech on Indepedence day
▪ called for making a New India by 2022 which must include
a compassionate and egalitarian society
o Team India - A team of 125 crore Indians•
o New India
o What we need now is not so much a romantic re-creation of the past but
rather a rigorous study to adapt the best of the old traditions to modern
times.
o as Gandhi and Tagore knew so well, economics and politics alone
cannot satisfy deeper longings in the human soul. It is time for India to
reimagine its identity, rejuvenating its millennial wisdom and
combining it with current material development.
o India @ 70
▪ 2017 is prime number - But it’s also an occasion to think
about the next 70 years—to 2087.Like 2017, 2087 is a
prime number.
▪ India @ 1 - High fertility rate (5.(. Life expectancy of 32.3
years. at least half of all Indians—some say as high as
80%—had never left the district they were born in. No
more than 12-13% of all Indians had any form of literacy.
▪ changes - single party majority, forceful leader, unpopular
decision, cadre based organisation, distinctive ideology of
 hindurva, ignoring minority vote, capturing organisation,
more assertive foreign policy,
▪ good - thriving $2 trillion economy of 1.3 billion people, at
least 200-250 million of whom have been pulled out from
poverty over the past 20-25 years.
▪ why big deal? - till now soft one which is not a hard one,
and emulating east asian model - cooperation between state
and business as well s plugging in global value chains ,
nationalism as cementing force
▪ factor determining next 70 years - economic model it
chooses. commitment to actually protecting the
environment. ability to understand the difference between
majoritarianism and democracy. challenges it encounters
with scientific temper and a modern mindset
• Quotes
o it is worthwhile to keep in mind that from one way of looking, the
Republic is a bonafide miracle. Few people gave us a chance. And yet
here we are.
o India is an ancient civilisation, yet a modern state with modern dreams.
o JLN speech at 15th august, 1947 - "Long years ago we made a tryst
with destiny and now the time has come we redeem the pledge, no
wholly or in full measure but in substantial measure. At the stoke of the
midnight when the world sleeps India will awake to life and freedom. "
o India of Mahatma Gandhi's Dreams: women equality, peace with rest
of the world, no untouchability, poorer shall feel that it is their country ,
no high class or low class of people, where all communities shall live in
perfect harmony
o New India
o India is a land of a hundred problems and the mother of a billion
solutions. - Kailash satyarthi
o In India the choice could never be between chaos and stability but
between manageable and unmanageable chaos, between humane and
inhuman anarchy and between tolerable and intolerable disorder -
Ashish Nandy
o We dream of becoming a developed nation not a domineering
superpower
Nationalism vs Patriotism
 • India was born in the shadow of mao, hitler and Stalin but create by saints like
Gandhi.
• Nationalism is a modern concept (european invention). It is a terrirotrial idea. it
gives a supreiroroty complex which consider other as inferior. it is a narrow U
perspective
• Patriotism is a broader concept which has a receptive aspect. Love and sacrifice for
the country
• Nationalism - Aggressive. Comparative, competitive and political
o Orwell - nationalism is worst opponent of peace
o China - expansionist nationalism
o Pakistan - narrow nationalism
o America - egoistic nationalism
• Natioanlism in our country is already inclusive
o derived from freedom struggle
o Our patriotism could only be India , not Indu or Muslim
o indian culture- composite natioanlsim
• role of media and social media i rising fundamentalism
• Nationalism vs Patriotism
o tend to shout slogans vs quietly confident
o reflects insecurity vs comfortable in his own skin
o aggressive by nature vs passive by nature
• Movies -
o Rang de basanti - thought-provoking movie created a huge impact
socially with the candle lighting sequence which is often used in real
life even now by citizens for protesting an issue.
• Should rather aim for humanism
Culture
• Several aspect of Indian culture
o features- tolerance, peaceful coexistence, respect for pluralism , larva
dharma sambhava, vaisudhav kutambkuam
o issues - rise of fundamentalist, appeasement by pol establishment, lack
of UCC
• Diversity - geographical, racial, religious, linguistic, caste, tribal, class
• composite culture - music, food, dance, arts, heritage, national movement , syncretic
culture
o composition means made up of various parts
 o defined as the fusion or amalgamation of different cultures and tradiotn
forming a new distinct cultural tradition
• uniting factors
o success in sports
o cinemas
o celebration of festival
o taxation system
o sufi culture
o administrate structre
o cosnisitituoon of india
o architecture
• Unity in diversity
Education
• Education is transmission of human civilisation. Education is the process of
initiating the learners into a form of life that is considered as desirable to preserve
and promote
• Literacy is the movement from darkness to light
• three aims of education — economic, citizenship, and character/values (CEC)
• Data etc
o International Covenant on Economic,Social and Cultural Rights
o Right to Education (RTE) Act
o Education expenditure is 3-4% of gdp - 65% on primary education,
9.5%on higher education and 11% on technical education
o ASER survey findings - only an average 48.1% of Class V children
across India can read a Class II-level text.
o Census 2011 data - fewer than one out of every 10 Indians is a
graduate.
• Issues
o Education without values - creates deveil
o problem with rat race is you are still a rat at the end of it
o mediocrity
o irrelevant to the job market.
o drowning in information, while starving for wisdom.
o Bihar cheating incident - Mass cheating in Vaishali with teacher being
helpless. What sue is education if ti can’t even teach you the fallacy
of cheating?
 o Toppers in Bihar unaware of the content of the syllabus. science
topper doesn’t know electron and proton. political science topper
confuses political science with cooking
o Three idiots is good movie for at least one reason - question the sensible
audience about the purpose one duration - most interesting character -
highly nicknamed virus - who think education is nothin but academic
excellence is proven wrong -
o Overqualified - utakal express incident
• Importance
o He who opens a school door, closes a prison - Victor huGO
o Education is the cheap defence of nations - Edmund Burke
o purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows
o replaces an empty mind with an open one
o philosophy of school room in one generation will be the philosophy of
the govt in the next
o Give a man a fish and you help him for a day and teach a man how to
fish and you help him for life
o Swami vivekanad found education as the answer to uplift the indian
masses out of their ignorance
o Dr Sarvapall radhakrishnan - the purpose of education is not merely
acquisirn of skills and information but the initiation into higher life, into
a world which transcends the world of space and time
• Suggest
o Independent thinking - taught how to think, not what to
think.” Margaret Mead
o Read-Write-Retain to Understand-Analayze-Interpret
o develop authentic self - autonomy, integrity and harmony. (HAI)
o Finland’s new teaching suysytem - teaching by topic
o exposure to failure
o Ken robinson three step model
o Every flower blooms at different pace
o A student should be exposed to failures early in his/her life. it can’t be
postponed to future, for The earlier a student learns to face tough
situation, the better it is for his/her growth
o TSR Subramanian committee report
o NEP
o Kothari commission report
 o economic survey has given traffic light approach to reforms:
▪ Red light (Avoid): Increasing number of teachers,
providing stationery, computers and building. Because they
create leakage and don’t improve learning outcomes.
▪ Amber/Yellow (Promising): remedial classes, DBT for
scholarship, DBT for sending girl child to school etc.
▪ Green light (Definitely do): merit based scholarship. Mid-
Day Meal. Biometric Attendance.
• Steps taken
• Quotes
o “If you think in terms of a year, plant a seed; if in terms of 100 years,
teach the people.”
o Education is a tree whose roots are bitter but fruits are sweet
Women
• Data
o GER in elementary education has improved to 97%
o GER in higher education has improved to 20%
o world records for highest runs and wickets are now both held by women
in the current Indian squad – Raj (6028 runs) and Jhulan Goswami (189
wickets),
o 85% of India’s family planning budget is used to promote and conduct
sterilizations on women
o Among suicides by women, a whopping 51.4% are committed by
housewives (almost 23,000)
o WB- • India’s overall female labour force participation (FLFP) rate has
dropped from 35% in 1991 to 27% in 2014 while the world average is
around 50%.
o Gender equality - India’s rank 127/148 (Gender development index)
o Business - Indra nooyi, Kiran mazoomdar shaw, chandra kochar
o Freedom struggle - Rani Gaidnlu, Lakshmibai
o Women cricket team reaching the final of the world cup at lords
o Captain Radhika Menon, first woman captain of the Indian Merchant
Navy received International Maritime Organisation Award for
Exceptional Bravery at Sea.
o Top 4/5 girls in UPSC 2015. An auto rickshaw driver’s daughter in
Mumbai achieved the top rank in Chartered Accountancy exams in
 2013. A butcher’s daughter topped the post graduate course in
chemistry in Bangalore University and won six gold medals.
o In 2017 Women in Politics Map report, India was ranked low at 148th
position. It was released by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and
UN Women.
▪ But - in 21 out of 20 indian states, female voter turnout
exceeded male in recent assembly elections - ECI
o Half a billion rising!
▪ Women constitute about 35% of the workforce in software
industry and enjoy the same status, wages and perks as men
▪ Between 1981 and 2011, women’s literacy in India
increased from 29.8% to 65.5%.
▪ In 1990, only 60% of 21-year-old women were literate and,
in 2011, this figure had improved to 85%.
▪ Between 1980-81 and 2000-01, the percentage of girls who
were in school at the primary level (classes I to V)
increased from 64.1% to 85.9%
• Issues
o Paradoxical situation in content of women - worshipped as goods and
sometimes treated as slaves
o MyChoice video by Deepika Padukone
o sexual harassment must be the greatest leveller for women in India -
TERI, Tehlka
o women’s freedom is what offend these criminals
o Sexual violence is not an expression desire but an expression of power.
o In various aspects - social, cultural, economic, legal and political
o 4 stages of discrimination against wome
▪ Before birth at infancy (IMR (girl) >IMR(boy))
▪ preference for boys
▪ Middle years before adolscence
▪ poor nutritional status
▪ education denied
▪ Adolsecene
▪ Victim of assaults
▪ human trafficiking
▪ AIDS
▪ Motherhood
 ▪ Poverty
▪ Inequality
▪ Health issues
o Women are the first to lose their jobs and the last to be hired.
o Globally acclaimed feminist Simone de Beauvoir once said, “Women
are not born but made.”
• 3 main root causes
o 1. Physical/biological differences
o 2. Psychological /emotional differences
o 3. Economic weaknesses
• Importance of women empowerment - women empowerment is essentially the
process of upliftmyn tot economic, social and political status of women in society
o PRI story - husband and wife fighting elections "why can't i fight?"
o Yatra Naryastu Poojyante, Ramante Tatra Devatah (Wherever ladies are
worshipped, there dances goddesses)
o if you want something said, ask a men; i fyouw ant to get something
done, ask a women - margret Thatcher
o progress of community can be measured by progress of women in the
community - BR Ambdekar
o “In the future, there will be no female leaders. There will just be
leaders.” - Lean In, Shery Sandberg
o You educate a woman; you educate a generation.” - Birgham Young
o “Man may have discovered fire, but women discovered how to play
with it.”
o not just the moral or the constitutional requirement but also the
necessity of time to stop neglecting this tremendous reservoir of
potential and assimilate them whole heartily into the socio-economic
setup
o India’s gross domestic product (GDP) could see a jump of about 60%
by 2025 if the gender inequality issue in society is resolved and more
women are allowed to join the workforce. - Mckinsey report on Gender
Parity
o Gender equality as double dividend - well being of children ensures
o A nation which doesn’t respects its women will never become great -
Vivekananda
o Women warriors, bodyguards and throne guards in Chola empire -
Aremis from greek
 o On International omen day in 1917 - a strike wave started with
demonstration - started by women t faculty level - next day it morphed
into something bigger - 3 days alter tsar was forced to abdicated -
revolutionary cycle of 1917 had begun
o Kudambashree program - family property - engages women to run their
own business
• Suggest
o Women need freedom, not protection
o Give them a place to stand and they will move the world
o Be British - during sinking of titanic, during battle of dunkirk
o Health, education, safety, financial inclusion
o Men for women
▪ He for she
▪ program H in brazil - promote ender equitable ttitudea nd
improve reproductive and sexual health practices
▪ US Coaching boys into men programme - mentoring
approaches and media campaign - importance of violence
free relationship
o Women empowerment
▪ power over, to, with, within
• Steps taken
• Quotes
o The words of great poet Rabindra Nath Tagore" We women are not
only the dieteis of the household fire but the flame of the soul itself
should be etched in our minds and hearts as we accord women the
respect and deference that is their due - not too hard - basic values are
part of our grand heritage and deeply ingrained in our consciousness
o India of Mahatma Gandhi's Dreams: women has equal right as men
o new India - women led development
o investing in women and girls is not only the right thing to do but one
that is also the smart thing to do - hillary clinton
o Today is better than yesterday, and there is hope that tomorrow will be
brighter than today; and in many homes, mothers and wives are
teaching their sons and husbands how to change diapers
Children
• UNCRC- A child means every human being below the age of 18 years
• Data
 o India is one of the 10 countries in the world with the greatest survival
divide between wealthy and poor urban children.
o Rsoc data
o UNICEF report on child abuse - “Hidden in paint sight"
o there are an estimated 4.3 million children working in factories or
processes, according to the Census of 2011
• Issues
o Despite its hugely applauded human development indices and other
laurels, child marriages in Kerala are still prevalent.
• Importance
o if humanity is almighty; s best creation then childhood is its best
manifestation,
o In the words of Abraham Lincoln, “a child is a person who is going to c
arry on what you have started. the water of humanity is in his hand"
o Jawaharlal Nehru also reminded us of ‘the supreme importance of the c
hild. He said, “Somehow the fact that ‘ultimately everything depends up
on the human factor, gets rather lost in our thinking of plans and scheme
s. It is very important that we must have them, but ultimately, it is the h
uman being who counts and if the human being counts well, he counts
much more as a child than as a grown-up.”
• Suggest
o great gift one can give to one's children are the roots of responsibility
and wings of indepdnece
o Different is good. When someone tells you that you are different, smile
and hold your head up and be proud because a little trouble… it’s good
for you.” - Angelina Jolie
o Todays victims are tomorrows prepators; this state is not inevitable
though
o Children deserves a better deal and it is the adults who can make a
difference
o Once a delinquent behaviour has been detected, one must remember to
reject the behaviour and not the individual.
• Steps taken
• Quotes
o We should build a new social contract in new and rapidly growing India
that we seek a country and world in which no child will sleep hungry,
 no child will sleep under the open sky, no child will be sent to work
instead of a school
o President speech - called for making a New India by 2022 which must
include a compassionate and egalitarian society
▪ where the deprived child, the aged and the ailing senior
citizen, and the poor and the under-privileged are always in
our thought.
Governance
• Governance Includes - Processes, System of interaction between LEJ, Ability of
govt to create and implement public policy, mechanism by which citizens interact
with institution of authority
• Standards must conform to TRAMS or smart - Time bound, Realistic, Achievable,
Measurable, Specific
• eGovernance is the use of IT to create SMART governance
• RBA - shifts from charity to duty approach., development as matter of righ,
discourage elitist cutlure, part of human right declarations - ICCPR and ICECSR,
capacity building, ex - RTI, mgrnega, rte, peas, rosa, far,
• Inclusive governance - Aims at ensuring equal participation and equal treatment
before law and in opportunities
• Ethical governance - based on ethics and social conscience. involves anti corruption
strategies
• Good governance
o ART - Accountability, Responsibility, Transparency (Aimed at good
governance)
o Responsiveness of the governemnt towards the needs and aspiration of
the people
• Data
o Uthiramerur inscription - Stone edicts and carvings found in
Uthiramerur have shown clues of local self governance
during Chola imperial period.
o term ‘governance’ was first used — in the sense in which it is deployed
today — by the World Bank in a 1989 report on African economies.
• Issues
o India grows at night while the government sleeps
o Democracy functions, but governance does not.
o India is an over regulated but undergoverned state.
o Deficit in governance (PIA-2)
 ▪ Deficit of alternatives - only state is the provider
▪ Deficit of Information - lack of awareness
▪ Deficit of Participation - Lack of incentives
▪ Deficit of accountability - Abuse of institutional
mechanism
• Importance
o OECD Confidence in governance eindex
▪ 73% indians have faith in their government - third highest
in the world - topped by switzerland and greece is at
bottom
• Suggest
o Good governance must provide choice and voice to citizens
o TAPE (transparent , accountable , public oriented , efficient
)government
o “People shouldn't be afraid of their government. Governments should
be afraid of their people.”― Alan Moore, V for Vendetta's
o India needs a strong liberal state with three core elements: the authority
to take quick and decisive action, a transparent rule of law to ensure that
such action is legitimate, and accountability to the people.
o Governance in 21st century conditions requires a new architecture. It must
be formed around four ‘L’s. Localisation, lateralisation, learning
and listening
o P2G2 - Pro-People Good Governance, which the government claims to
be its focus.
o Aim of govt is to generate HOPE - Harmony, Opportunity, People’s
participation and Equality
o P4 - People Private Public Partnership for good governance
o XaaS - Everything as a service. Everything” (or X) covers governance,
health, education, agriculture, information and more, all of which can be
provided as a service on the cloud.
• Steps taken
• Quotes
o Antyodaya - Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya’s concept of serving the
last man in the queue
o "That government is best which governs least”- Thoreau
Civil services/Administration
• Administration is defined as a process of working through and with others to
accomplish the agreed goals efficiently.
• It is a cooperative human effort which operate within a particular political setting
• Data
o according to ncrcw a bureaucrat is 51% likely to be transferred within a
year
• Issues
o Milton Friedman - there are no free lunches
o Power doesnt corrupt people, people corrupts power
o Power attracts the worst and corrupts the best
o Neither IndiaN, nor civil, nor service - JN said for ICS in 1932
o Civil admin have become inflexible, inward looking and self
perpetuating - 2nd ARC
o ABCD - Avoid, Bypass, Confuse, Delay (Comment on the culture
within the Indian bureaucracy)
o The path of a civil servant is not made of roses
o It is impossible to run a 21st century economy with a 19th century
bureaucracy using 18th century rules.
• Importance of admin
o Civil servants acts as Satisficing agent - Satisfy+Suffice
o Civils servants are trustees of the public
o "When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself as
public property” – Thomas Jefferson.
• Administrative examples
o Collector and Commissioner of Chennai in field during floods
o Absence of Civil administration during Jat violence in Haryana
o KK Paul - As a delhi police commissioner, he use to travel in buses to
send out a message to pick pocketers
o Saurabh Kumar - IAS - Cashless village - Palnar in Dantewada
o Jayesh Ranan - IAS - Thub
o Naveen Jain - Rajasthan - PCPNDT Act
o Surender kumar solanki - Training women entrepreneur in solar lamp
manufacturing
o JS Deepak - Spectrum Harmonisation
• Suggest
o Defanged generals seldom win wars
 o Reforms with the right intent but without consensus cannot be
sustained
o For a civil servant - “If you stand firm and you don’t mind where you
get transferred to, then usually there’s nothing they can do to you,” - In
spite of Gods - Edward Luce
o when economy has undergone a change, Why not administration?
o PM outlined a five-point charter for tax administrators - RAPID, which
stands for revenue, accountability, probity, information (for non
intrusive tax assessment) and digitisation (to record them) - to reform
the tax system.
o mantra of “Reform to Perform to Transform” by Modi
o Minimum governemnt maximum governance
o PM Speech on Civil Services Day
▪ Outcome centric - focus on this
▪ anecdote - 3 labour - 2 present - work is done
but plant is not planted
▪ Duty
▪ to evaluate every decision on the parameter of
national interest
o Offices should be seen as crown of thrones
o A civils servant has to move from the mentality of Mera kya (What is
there in it for me)andMujhe Kya (Why should I be bothered) which are
ruining the country
o Lateral entry
o Perform or perish culture
o Infuse more technology
• Categories of public service values (modern bureaucracy)
o Ethical
▪ Honesty, trust, integirty, fairness, probity, loyalty,
accountability, public interest
o Democratic
▪ Equality, liberty, rule of law , citizenships , openness,
rperesnetativenes, transparency, fraternity,
o Professional
▪ Effectiveness, accountability, objectivity, impartiality,
efficiency, economy, transparency, quality, innovation,
service orientation, rationality, legality, courage
 o Citizenship/people oriented
▪ Empathy and compassion, Tolerance, altruism, sense of
devotion, sacrifice, magnanimity, benevolence, humanism,
harmony
• Steps taken
o Abcd to road
• Quotes
o "Leave your footprints on the sand of time by your good work” -
Vivekanada
Democracy
• Social contract theory: Expresses two fundamental ideas
o Value of liberty - the idea that will and not force is the basis of
gvoenment
o the value justice or the idea that right and not might is the basis of
all political society and of every system of political order.
• Plato's view on democracy
o From betsnto worst
▪ Philosopher king
▪ Timocracy - live for honour is dominant motive of the
rukers. Certian property pre requisite for office
▪ Oligarchy - distinguish between rich and poor . Values
wealth. Political power with rich only
▪ Democracy - freedom
▪ Mob rule - society in chaos . Longing for freedom . Wil
ultimately result in tyranny
o Democracy - charming form of government dispensing equality to both
unequal and equals
▪ Freedom is supreme good
▪ Lower class grows bigger and bigger . Poor become the
inner
▪ Democratic man is son of oligarchic man
o On Athenian democracy
▪ Anarchic society without internal unity
▪ Follow citizen impulsrs rather than common good
▪ Typically run by fool
▪ Mistake Anarchy for freedom
• Aristotle also critical of democracy
 o If something achieved its ends then it is good
o Ends of democracy is goodnight for all citizens
o But it is a rule of majority
o Majority can never be virturous
o Based on bad definition of freedom- everyone lives as he want and
toward whatever ends he craves
• Kautilya Arthashastra
o Relaised significance of rule by Nobel elite
o Gave code of conduct for rulers
• Reinassamce theory on Democracy
o Could survive only in small political communities
o Expansion of territory and population inevitably leads to tyranny
o If a republic is very large it is destroyed by internal forces -
Montesquieu
o It is nation property for large stars to be governed by a despotic prince -
Rousseau
• Data
o 800th anniversary of Magna carta in 2015
o Three phases of Indian democracy - accommodative, democratic
repression, manipulative
• Issues
o Democracy functions, but governance does not.
o The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and
Religion
o Link between capitalism and democracy is broken today - Slavoz zizek
o A democracy is like a angry mob where 51% of the people will make
away rights of the remaining 49% -Thomas Jefferson
o uneven calims that have emerged - rights of women, nature of national
identity, welfare of masses and share in power for the backward classes
o Assessment of Indian democracy need to distinguish between -
ideals, institutions and practice
o Revolt against globe elites - debate about global citizenship
o Soft State is a term introduced by Gunnar Myrdal in his Asian
Drama to describe a general societal “indiscipline” prevalent in South
Asia and by extension much of the developing world - in comparison to
kind of modern state that had emerged in Europe. Myrdal used the term
to describe:
 ▪ ... all the various types of social indiscipline which manifest
themselves by deficiencies in legislation and, in particular,
law observance and enforcement, a widespread
disobedience by public officials and, often, their collusion
with powerful persons and groups ... whose conduct they
should regulate. Within the concept of the soft states
belongs also corruption
▪ For Myrdal a major causal factor was colonial powers'
destruction of many of the traditional centers of local
power and influence and failure to create viable
alternatives. Coupled with this was the development of
an attitude of disobedience to any authority which was
central to the nationalist politics resistance. This attitude
persisted after independence
• Importance
o Indigenous provisions
▪ 5th and 6th schdule
▪ Panchayats raj
▪ Cncept of secularism
o Essentail for conflict resolution nd nation building in pluralistic states
o the maturity of a society is not measure by absence of conceit in it as
the ability of its institution and procedures for resolving it
o Yesterday’s militants become today’s chief ministers – and tomorrow’s
opposition leaders. - Tharoor
o Men's capacity of justice makes democracy possible. His capacity for
injustice makes it necessary
o “Democracy is not law of the majority but protection of the
minority.” Albert Camus
o Democracy represetn the end point of human history - francis
Fukuyama
o democracy in India has the passion of religion, the thrill of mystery
o Democracy in essence is an universal value that derive its legitimacy
not just by what it intends to secure but also in how it seeks to establish
itself
o - more accountable form of government, improves the quality of
decision-making, enhances the dignity of citizens, method to deal with
 differences and conflicts, allows us to correct its own mistakes, bering
stability, enduring and accountable systems
o the most important reason India has remained intact as a country is
because it is a democracy. - edward luce
o india’s federal democracy has been an attempt at organising and
representing a fragmented, diverse society within a unified polity
• Soul of democracy - equality, pluralism, liberty of speech, good governance,
tolerance, brotherhood, culture, ideals of our freedom struggle, our preamble
• universal principles - consoitituonalism, rule of law, democratic elections,
federalism, independent judiciary, free media, transparency, minority rights, consent
of the governed
• criticism - capitalism nd not democracy is spreading across the world, preparedness
is needed , inclusive and secular governance is needed before democracy is
introduced in the country, condition of women remains same
• Suggest
o like a fragile flower
o Right democracy would be when you can take a political party to court
over failing to living unto its manifesto
o VOX POPULI (Voice of people) should be VOX DEI (Voice of God)
o “There cannot be daily democracy without daily citizenship.” Ralph
Nader
o Stability is wanted but not at the cost of change when change is
imperative. Second thing nobody wants is mere adjustment. Adjustment
is wanted but not at the sacrifice of social justice.- Ambedkar
o There is no human institution that doesn’t have dangers; greater the
institution, great the chance of abuse. Remedy is not avoidance of
democracy but reduction of possibility of abuse to minimum - Gandhi
o "If It is costly , so be it. it is the price you pay for democracy” - T N
Sheshan in context of electoral reforms
o Evils are to be killed not regulated - David Locke, American writer
o We have to keep in mind Plato’s injunction: “The punishment suffered
by the wise who refuse to take part in government, is to suffer under the
government of bad men”
• Steps taken
• Quotes
o Pillars of democracy : 3D i.e. Debate, Discuss and Dialogue
 o india @ 1 - It was a tryst with destiny, yes, but also a tryst with
decency. A tryst with faith in democracy
o What it actually is
▪ OF the people OFF the people
▪ FOR the people FAR the people
▪ BY the people BUY the people
o A feast of vultures - Jose Joseph
▪ “Democracy in India is only a ‘top dressing on an Indian
soil, which is essentially undemocratic’.”
o Gettysburg address, 1863, Abraham Lincoln while dedicating a national
cemetery in memory of people who died in civil ar -“ Democracy - that
government of the people, by the people, for the people will not vanish
from the earth"
Fundamental rights
• Significance - 14,19 and 21 compse the golden triangle,
• Fundamental Rights in SA - right to privacy, to environment, to adequate housing,
to health are services
• eternal vigilance is the price of liberty
• Panoptiocaon - Michael Foucolt - disciplinary society of surevillance
• Simon Davis : Indian train syndrome - Indians are not concerned about their privacy
- they'll disclose everything to a stranger on a train
o but they all know that they ar never going to meet that stranger again in
life
• Snoweon prdwonon
Freedom of speech
• For
o There is no right in the world not to be offended. That right simply
doesn’t exist- Rushdie
o If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person
were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in
silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be
justified in silencing mankind. - Mill
o Curbing freedom of exppression is soft despotism . - Toqueville
o Evolution of democracy is not possible if we are not prepared to hear
the other side. No school of thought can claim a monopoly of right
judgement. In a vast country like ours we must have room for all school
of honest thoughts - Gandhi
 o “Men are mortal. So are ideas. An idea needs propagation as much as a
plant needs watering. Otherwise both will wither and die,” said B.R.
Ambedkar,
o Jokes tells secrets about ourselves to ourselves and the world that we
necessarily don’t want to tell
o Censorship to art, is same as lynching is to justice
▪ ir reflects society's lack of confidence in itself
o The answer to bad ideas is good ideas, not a ban on ideas
o Where the mind is without fear and head is held high - Tagore
o "He who does not move does not notice his chains.” - Rosa
Luxemburg, renowned civil rights activist
o freedom of expression is not only one of the most fundamental of all
civil liberties, but linchpin of the many others which require, at root, the
unfettered commerce of ideas and opinions.
• Against
o Freedom without responsibility would lead us into anarchy
o "India is the only country where you can get up in the morning hear
azaan, followed by the temple bells nearby, the paath from a gurdwara
and the sound of church bells. No other country in the world allows this.
And in order to protect it... this freedom should be protected with a
sense of responsibility.” MJ Akbar
o People demand freedom of speech as compensation for freedom of
thought which they seldom use
o You cannot go to a crowded theatre and shout fire - US Judge
o Only that free speech which has an intent of creative ideas and which
pursues certain social values for the benefit of civilisation can be
permitted under FoS - Justice Frank Murphy
o Humour without context remain hot air; And Satire without sensibility
remains soliloquy (talking to oneself)
• issue with censorship
o very easy for anyone to achieve censorship
o a strong, judicial commitment to free speech does not exist in our
society
o e.g.
▪ Govid Nilhani TV serial tamas was targeted
▪ Hansal Mehta was heckled for innocuous dialogue in his
film Dil pe mat le yaar
 ▪ Rahul dholkaia parzania on guard riots (2005)
▪ Da vici code - christian senitment
▪ vishwaroopam - muslim sentiment
• Suggest
o Statue of liberty must have a statue of responsibility as it's counterpart
Development
• Development is freedom. Freedom from bondage, servitude, poverty, hunger,
ignorance, misery, illiteracy or any other form of domination
• Growth has three dimensions now - economic, social and environment
• Development’s pillars - PEES
o Equity
o Empowerment
o Sustainability
o Productivity
• Concept of human development as defined by Dr Mahbub ul haq - "development
enlarges peoples choices and improves their lives"
• Data
o Population in urban areas
has crossed 30% as per the 2011 census, standing at 31.16% to be exact.
o According to a 2007 UN State of the World Population report, by 2030,
40.76% of country's population is expected to reside in urban areas.
o According to official figures, more than 50 per cent of persons
displaced due to mines and mining projects are tribals.
o its working-age population (aged 15 to 64 years) is projected to reach
68 per cent of the total population by 2035
o Approach paper to 12th plan says
- the labour force in India is expected to increase by 32 per cent over the
next 20 years, while it will decline by 4.0 per cent in industrialised cou
ntries and by nearly 5.0 per cent in China.
o as per a UNFPA report, there are more Indians between the ages of 10
and 24 than the entire population of the US — with skills relevant to
industry, it could meet domestic and global manpower needs.
o According to data compiled by WHO and UNICEF’s Joint Monitoring
Programme, just 2.5% of Bangladeshis don’t own a toilet. Compare that
to India, where 48.3% of the population does not own a toilet.
o It has been estimated that India losses 6.4% of its GDP annually for lack
of basic sanitation and sanitation facilities
 o Less than 10 per cent of the Indian workforce (2.2% of all adults) has
had formal skill training, while in countries like South Korea, it is closer
to 98 per cent.
o Over 65 million people live in slums.
• Issues
o Rice-bowl theory - The poor in an underdeveloped country are more
interested in a bowl of rice than in democracy, and that, in any case,
democracy is useless to them if it could not guarantee them adequate
food, clothing and shelter.
o Paul Ehrlich, whose 1968 bestseller “The Population Bomb” forecast
the imminent breakdown of the world’s ability to feed itself.
o •As civilization advances culture declines
o •• Crisis faced in India – moral or economic
o If greed is the problem of capitalist society, then envy is the
problem of socialist society
o If development is not engendered, it is endangered
o India's poorest, most marginalized inhabitants live atop our country's
richest lands. - The Kalahandi paradox
o Paradox of development - Trains Buses Buildings roads vs Slums
traffic, pollution, congestion
o Eighty-five people own as much wealth as the poorest half of the
global population put together as per an Oxfam report.
▪ IMF estimates that the Gini coefficient for India has gone
up from 45 in 1990 to 51 in 2013. China has done even
worse. Its Gini coefficient has climbed from 33 to 53 in the
same period.
▪
o Expectations are morphing from "Garibi Hatao" to "Ameer Banao”
o 60% of the forest area in the country is in tribal area.
o the questions staring us today is - Growth for whom?
o 3 reason for malnutrition - augus deaton - noble prize winner
▪ absence of sanitaiton
▪ lack of clean drinking water
▪ low level of farmled education
• Importance
o Growth vs Development - "If the population of city grows from 1 lac to
2 lac over a period of time we say the city has grown however if
 facilities like housing provision of basic services and other
characteristic remain same then the growth has not been accompanied
by development"
o Incremental property doesn't lead to satisfaction but give exponential
rise to unfulfilled aspiration and frustration
o Deng Xiaoping said that for China, “Development is the hard truth”.
That dictum applies equally to India.
o A comparison of authoritarian China and democratic India suggests a
democratic disadvantage. But a comparison between democratic India
and episodically authoritarian Pakistan suggests the exact opposite.
• Suggestion
o Blue(Ocean) economy - term referring to a healthy ocean, supporting
higher productivity. introduced by Gunter Pauli’s book, “The Blue
Economy: 10 years - 100 innovations - 100 million jobs”.
o " more inclusive and more sustainable growth” - 12th plan
o Gandhi’s principle of Sarvodaya - is a term meaning 'Universal Uplift'
or 'Progress of All'.
o Human beings should always be treated as ends in themselves and not
merely as means - Kant
o development is best seen in terms of an expansion of people’s basic
freedoms, or human capabilities. - amartya sen
o Never give a man fish to eat, teach them how to fish"
o A “development contract” similar to Social contrct that John
Locke espoused
o We should build a new social contract in new and rapidly growing India
that we seek a country and world in which
▪ no child will sleep hungry,
▪ no child will sleep under the open sky,
▪ no child will be sent to work instead of a school
▪ no person will be subjected to discrimination or violence
because of her identity,
▪ no person will be denied free, good-quality healthcare, and
▪ no old person will have to work or beg to live with dignity
o development is best seen in terms of an expansion of people’s basic
freedoms, or human capabilities. - amartya sen
o As India’s Second Five Year Plan put it, material welfare is not an end
in itself but merely a means to a better intellectual life; a society which
 devotes most of its resources to the bare essentials of life is limited in its
pursuit of higher ends.
o SMART - Specific , Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely
o building smart cities is all about 4 S and 4 P (THIS IS GOLD)
▪ Smart Leadership, Smart Governance, Smart Technologies
and Smart People make a city smart. - LGTP
▪ The resource challenge can be met if we make a success of
Public-Private-People Partnership
o Chhattisgarh has a Right to Skill Law
• Quotes
o theory that ‘development’ entails ‘costs’ and that this is a ‘sacrifice’ that
some must accept in order that others might benefit must be recognised
to be not sincere; it must be firmly abandoned.
o Development must be woven around people and not the people around
development
o We need to move from alleviation (It is a process) of poverty to
elimination of poverty (It is a time bound objective)
o Reform for what? - Reform to transform . Reform for whom? - for all
citizens especially the poor
▪ reform is not an end in itself. Reform is just a way station
on the long journey to the destination. The destination is
transformation of India. Therefore, reform to transform.
And reforming to transform, is a marathon, not a sprint
o Amrut Mahotsav
▪ 2022 - 75th year of Independence
▪ Vision for “Team India” led by PM
▪ Elements of the vision
▪ Housing for all
▪ 24*7 power, clean drinking water, road
conencivitiy, toilet
▪ one member has access to means for
livelihood.
▪ Providing medical services in each village and
city.
▪ Senior Secondary School within 5 km reach of
every child
 ▪ Ensure communication connectivity to all
villages.
o How many metro cities are there in India - if you said four then you're
decade late. At least 8 as per pay commission
▪ India is one of the most rapidly urbanising country in the
world
▪ 70% GDP and 32% population on 2% of land
▪ Number of census town rose by over 185% between 2001
and 2011 compared to .36% increased ein vilalges
o english literature
▪ Charles dicken in hard Times - dark and smelly air,
suffocating environment, urban slums
▪ D H Lawrence - how tiny villages converted to modern
town with disruption to their structures
Social Justice
• A vulnerable section in a population is one that has some specific characteristics that
make it at higher risk of falling into poverty than others.
• Data
o Kerala has achieved a single digit Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) of 6 per
1,000 live births, comparable to any developed nation - NFHS4
o 2010 World Bank analysis of India’s social protection schemes showed
that the least targeted ones were the ones that were most effective at
actually delivering to the poor (not in favour of targeted scheme)
o apartheid regime - minority was the winner while majority was the
looser - was it just?
o magna carta
• Issues
o Women
o Disabled
o CHildren
o Old age
o Senior citizens
o Dalits
o Tribals
o Farmers
o some special features of the Indian psyche which could partly explain
this: greater tolerance, less discipline, the lack of a sense of retaliation,
 more flexibility in accepting outsiders, great adherence to hierarchy,
and emphasis on personal safety over adventure. Some felt that a
combination of many of these features have affected our ability to
pursue a vision tenaciously.- Kalam
o We Indians are hard to please, particularly when we look at the state of
our own nation and society.
o modernization has a two-headed character: Both greater uniformity and
greater consciousness of diversity can be expected to rise.
o Society’s violence and bigotries do not exist in Silos.
o "there is nothing more unequal than the equal treatment of unequal
people” - thomas jefferson
o Why are the property rights of small farmers (land) less important than
the property rights of large corporates (intellectual property)? Why are
the environmental and livelihood concerns of forest dwellers less
important than the environmental and health concerns of city dwellers?
o 3 forms of capital - social, economic, cultural - lack of these is prone to
discrimination
o Two scholars, Shaheen Rafi Khan and Damian Killen, put the
conditions of the poor in a nutshell:
▪ Poverty is hunger.
▪ Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor.
▪ Poverty is not being able to go to school and not knowing
how to read.
▪ Poverty is not having a job.
▪ Poverty is losing a child to illness, brought about by
unclear water.
▪ Poverty is powerlessness, lack of representation and
freedom.
▪ Poverty is fear for the future, having food once in a
day. (Use this as - Poverty is not just Hunger. Poverty is
being sick……..in a day. Poverty is hunger)
o We live in times when teenage girls are sold in slave markets for as
little as a pack of cigarettes. These are times when young boys are
forced to become soldiers and are handed guns and swords instead of
toys and books - Kailash Satyarthi
o “our chief national problems are eradication of poverty, illiteracy and
disease” = Bose
• Importance
o "the idea of social protection is basically the idea, simply, that we
should take care of each othe". - Noam Chomsky
o "Political Democracy cannot last unless there lies at the base of it a
social democracy” - Ambedkar
o Modernity has three aspects: Economic, Political and Social.
o Stability without change leads to degeneration while change without
stability Iead to chaos
o The pursuit of justice lies at the heart of social progress
o US SC judge - "nothing rankles human heart more than a brooding
sense of injustice. illness we can put up with, but injustice makes us
want to pull things down. democracy very life depends upon making the
machinery of justice iso effective that every citizens hall believe in the
befit of impartiality and fairness
• Suggest
o triumph of persuasion over force isnansign of civilised society
o Vivekananda - Daridra Narayana bhava
o you must not loose faith in humanity—humanity is like ocean—if few
drops are dirty , the ocean does not becomes dirty - gandhi
o society shouldn't be stagnant
o Focus should be on accidents of life rather than solely on the accidents
of birth.
o the measure of how free a society is is not how it treats its
good, obedient, compliant citizens, but how it treats its dissidents and
those who resist orthodoxy
o “Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as
outraged as those who are” -Benjamin Franklin
o A “development contract” similar to Social contrct that John
Locke espoused
o a generalisation of what weaker sections expect is to neglect their
individuality and diversity.
o We should build a new social contract in new and rapidly growing India
that we seek a country and world in which
▪ no child will sleep hungry,
▪ no child will sleep under the open sky,
 ▪ no child will be sent to work instead of a school no person
will be subjected to discrimination or violence because of
her identity,
▪ no person will be denied free, good-quality healthcare, and
▪ no old person will have to work or beg to live with dignity
o We need argumentative and not intolerant Indian - President mukherjee
o Sulabh by Bindeshwar Pathak
▪ rehabilitated 1 million manual scavengers
▪ concerted 1.2 million dry toilets
• Quotes
o The notion of human right builds on our shared humanity. These rights
are not derived from the citizenship of any country, or the membership
of any nation, but are presumed to be claims or entitlements of every
human being. They differ, therefore, from constitutionally created rights
guaranteed for specific people.”― Amartya Sen, The Idea Of Justice
o Indians tell themselves what kind of people they are and what kind of n
ation India is through the social welfare
schemes. These schemes express a sense of connection and shared desti
ny. Advantaged and disadvantaged are indissolubly bound to one anothe
r. There is continuity between past and future that allows past injustices
to be rectified
o International covenant on Civil and Political rights (ICCPR)
▪ first generation rights
▪ right to vote, adult franchise, right to run for election
o International covenant on Economic, Cultural and Social rights
(ICECSR)
▪ second generation rights
▪ right to food, right to health
o 2003: UN agreed on 6 principles of RBA
▪ Rights are universal and inalienable
▪ Rights are indivisible
▪ Rights are interdependent and inter related
▪ Principle of equity and non discrimination
▪ Principle of participation and inclusion
▪ accountability and rule of law
o Freedom is a non-negotiable right and each one of us, irrespective of
our economic and social status, deserves to have it. The shackles of
 slavery can never be stronger than the quest for freedom. - Kailash
Satyarthi
Secularism/Religion
• Data
o the oldest church in India is less than 50 km away from the oldest
mosque in India
o Kalam. could quote from the Gita as from the Koran.
o Indian flag
▪ Saffron - sacrifice not Hindu
▪ White - Purity not christian
▪ Green - progress not islam
o JLN "it means freedom of religion and conscience including freedom
for those who may have no religion.
• Issues
o Killing of Akhlaq
o The most communal group of India is the middle class - Andre Betille
o repression makes a religion flourish. - Dune, Frank Herbert
o "Two great difficult I faced since Independece
1. creating a just state by Just means
2. Creating a secular state in a religious country “ - Nehru
o real issue is not societal intolerance - society does not change in 3
months - but state tolerance
• Importance
o Rajiv Gandhi "Secualrism is the basis of our city "
o JLN in letter to Patel and other CM " We have muslim minority who are
so large in numbers that they cannot even if they want go anywhere
else. this is basic fact about which thee can be no argument. we have got
to deal with this minority in a civilised manner no matter what the
provocation are. we must give them security nd rights of citizen in a
democratic state
o Edmund burke in reflection on french revolution - religion is the
underlying basis of social order
o voltaire - without theirs society could not function for it is necessary for
people to have profoundly engraved on their minds the idea of supreme
being and creator i order to maintain a moral social order
o Gandhi " religion is a force of unity, we can't make it a cause for
conflict"
 o Tocqueville - religious faith is indispensable for well functioning
society
o God has no religion - Gandhi
o Science without religion is lame , religion without science is blind -
Einstein
o Religion is party of human make up. it is part of our cultural history.
Religion was 1st attempt at literature, our first attempt at cosmology,
making sense o where we are in the universe, our 1st attempt at
healthcare, believing in faith, our 1st attempt at philosophy
o Religion is regarded by common people as true, by wise as false and by
rulers as useful
o An opium for masses
o ‘Jato Mat Tato Path’ (as many ways, as beliefs) - Ramkrishna
Parmhansa
o Polytheism is inherently open-minded, and rarely persecutes ‘heretics’
and ‘infidels’. - sapiens
o Indian freedom fighters came from different religious beliefs
▪ Gandhi - religious but egalitarian
▪ Patel - devout hindu
▪ Nehru - atheist
▪ Jinnah - atheist, Shia
▪ Ambedkar - denounced caste and converted to buddhism
▪ maulana azad - islamic but tolerant
o Democratic nations that are faring much better are mostly secular
• Religion vs Science
o Both have confronted each other but kept a porous boundary between
them. Ex - Ramanuja
o Japanese and Islamic world portrayed mathematical phenomenon in
places of worship.
o Art of cryptography was practiced by Devdasis
• Suggest
o Most people when asked what spiritual quality is needed to rebuild
the civilisation will reply 'love'. But that is not correct. It would give
rise to mindless sentimentalism . we can only love what we know
personally. In public affairs something less dramatic and emotional is
needed, namely ,tolerance .it merely means putting up with people
being able to stand things.
 o “We should not allow the core values of our civilisation to wither
away. Over the years, our civilisation has celebrated diversity, plurality
and promoted and advocated tolerance. These values have kept us
together over the centuries.” - President mukherjee
o The term “sarva dharma sambhava (respect for all religions)” is a far
more meaningful formulation for us.
o Akbar - Akbar to the idea of sulh-i kul or “universal peace”.
o Kabir
o Kalam. could quote from the Gita as from the Koran.
o Tolerance - The word tolerate does not mean acceptance but a
compromise. Not a progressive word. We need to foster a culture of
trust and respect for other religion.
o Mahatma Gandhi said “The golden rule of conduct is mutual toleration,
seeing that we will never all think alike and we shall always see Truth
in fragments and from different points of vision.”
o Tolerance for all the religious sects" is one of the precepts of the
Asoka's dhamma
o Aneknatavada
• Quotes
o My religion is very simple. my religion is humanity - Dalai Lama
o I am with you
▪ Moko Kahan Dhundhe re Bande Mein to tere pass main
▪ Na Teerath mein, na moorat mein Na ekant niwas mein
▪ Na MANDIR mein, Na MASJID mein Na KABE KAILAS
mein
▪ Mein to tere pass mein bande
▪ Mein to tere pass mein
o Indian flag
▪ Saffron - sacrifice not Hindu
▪ White - Purity not christian
▪ Green - progress not islam
Environment
• Data
o Earth overshoot day - fellon August 2, the earliest date since ecological
overshoot began in the early 1970s.
 o Between 1700 and 1995, the period of industrialisation, 13.9 million sq
km of forest or 9.3 per cent of the worldís total area was cleared for
industrial uses, cultivation, pastures and fuelwood.
o Researchers have put an average price tag of US >nbsp;33 trillion a year
on fundamental ecosystems services
o China accounts for 29% of global greenhouse gas emissions; the US
around 15% and India around 6%. In per capita terms, too, India is
behind these countries.
o Data for 2010 (the latest year for which information compiled by the
World Bank is available) show that China emitted 6.2 tonnes of CO2
per capita, the US 17.6 tonnes and India was a distant third at 1.7
tonners per capita.
o On the environment front, India is one of the few countries that have
reduced its emission intensity . India emitted 0.65 kg of carbon dioxide
per $1 of GDP in 1990, which fell to 0.53 kg in 2011
▪ India had already reduced its emission intensity by 12% on
2005 level by 2010
o 2014 was the second year in a row in which China added more
generating capacity from non-fossil-fuel sources than from fossil-fuel
ones.
• Issues
o Tragedy of commons - Garlett hardin
▪ economic theory of a situation within a shared-resource
system where individual users acting independently
according to their own self-interest behave contrary to the
common good of all users by depleting or spoiling that
resource through their collective action
o the world is facing twin crisis - climate change and poverty - resulting
in conflict and vioelnce
▪ peace justice and the preservation of creation are
three interconnected themes
o there is need o understand the urgency o these matters - doomsday
prediction can no longer be met with irony or disdain - we are now
reaching breaking point
o Man is a complex being: he makes deserts bloom - and lakes die
o what we are doing to the forest of the world is reflection of what we ae
doing to ourselves and to one another - gandhi
 o An inconvenient truth
o The Great Derangement - Amitav Gosh
o Production of Darjeeling tea may drop by around 10 per cent this year
due to climatic adversities being faced by the planters.
o Kiribati's 1,00,000 people live on 32 atolls in the central Pacific, most
of which are less than six metres above sea level and are suffering
coastal erosion as the world's ice caps melt.
o Insurers defined it as mother of all risk
o monthly global average concentration of carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere had exceeded the threshold limit of 400 parts per million in
March 2015 for the first time in recorded history.
o Earth overshoot day - ecological debt day (It's an estimate of the
moment in a 12 month period when human have consumed more
natural resources then the biosphere can replace and created more waste
then it can absorb) - august 2nd 2017
• Importance
o Gaia hypothesis - earth is unique where we see life - we have moral
reasons to care for environment
o Yadrishi Bhavana Yasya; Siddhir Bhavati Tadrishi
▪ Means: Whatever are one's thoughts, so will be the
outcome. Our toughts are influenced by our environment.
Hence, we need clean environment.
o AtharvaVeda calls it a bounden duty that we must protect the earth so
that life can be sustained
o A frog does not drink up the pond in which it lives
o There is no escape--we pay for the violence of our ancestors.- Dune
o The Father of our Nation Mahatma Gandhi says ““Earth provides
enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed"
o “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our
children"- African proverb
o Brundtland comisisonr report - our common future denied sustainable
development
o eart summit in rio in 1990 -27 principles of the rio declaration -
reiterated sustainable development
o agenda 21 - blueprint of how to make development socially,
economically and environmentally sustainable
▪ social - equity, empowerment, accessibility, particiapiton
 ▪ environment - conservation, protection, carrying capacity
▪ economic - growth, producvitiy, trickle down, equality
• Imp activist - Vadnana Shiva (eco-femisnim), Medha Pathakr, Ramesh Aggarwal
(Green nobel, illegal einig), Gandhi, Sumita Narayan
• Suggestion
o Don't blow it - good planets are hard to find
o Environment should be put in a category off national security issue
o Gandhi’s idea of trusteeship
o One must care for the world one will not see - Gandhi
o “A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they
know they shall never sit in.” -Greek Proverb
o Bhutan and Cuba - Sustainable development
o WED theme for this year is "Seven Billion Dreams. One Planet.
Consume with Care."
o 4 R principle. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Recover.
o Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel once said that the best time to plant a tree was
30 years ago but the second best time is today.
o We represent a culture that calls our planet Mother Earth. As our
ancient text say: "Keep pure! For the Earth is our mother! And we are
her children!"
o French president’s eschewal of the presidential jet for the train.
o In Jakarta, which also battles a pollution crisis, the governor banned city
officials from using cars on the first Friday of each month
o Odd even formula has worked well in places such as Beijing and
Mexico city which have also been grappling with high levels of
pollution.
o circular economy
o need all hands on the deck
o High time urgency is recognise — even though the post industrial
world may well be remember as one of the most irresponsible in the
history, there are still reason to hope - everyone ned to make a
commitment to themselves and to mother earth to live responsible so
that others can also lie a fulfilling and happy life
• Quotes
o “Earth has enough resources to meet people’s needs, but will never
have enough to satisfy people's greed” - Gandhi
 o SDG - for the first time since the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, these goals will be universal and apply to both developed and
developing countries
▪ outline broader sustainability agenda dealing with ‘five Ps’
people, planet, prosperity, peace, and partnership.
S&T
• Science is a systematic attempt to understand natural phenomena in as much detail
and depth as possible, and use the knowledge so gained to predict, modify and
control phenomena
o he word Science originates from the Latin verb Scientia meaning ‘to
know’. The Sanskrit word Vijnan and the Arabic word Ilm convey
similar meaning, namely ‘knowledge’.
• Data
o India’s total expenditure on GERD is 1% of GDP. 55% of GERD
consumed by strategic sector
▪ Universities allotted 5% of GERD and contributes 52% of
National publication
o Across India, there are 143 million users of social media
o Global innovation Index - India is ranked 64/141 countries
o
• Issues
o Technology gives us power. Wisdom tell us how to use it
o no machine can do the work of extraordinary men while one machine
can do the work of 50 ordinary men
o the production of too many useful things results into too many useless
people - karl marx
o It is the character and not great intellect which makes a great scientist -
eisntein
o The masterswitch - Tim wu
o Religion and science
▪ Science investigates while religion interprets
▪ Science gives man knowledge which is power
while religion gives wisdom which is control
o Social media is a symbol of technology maturing and not society
maturing
o We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom.
o The creation of information-age goods is difficult to incentivize; their
distribution is hard to monetize; and we lack the tools to track them
easily in national accounts
o The current technological revolution, by contrast, hits economies like a
tsunami, with little warning and inexorable force. - KLAUS SCHWAB,
Chairman WEF
o Zuckerberg manifesto
▪ Are we, he asks, “building the world we all want?”
o We even interupt over interruption
o Fear of missing out on something
o Pratices, Processes, standards and expectations are changing fast
o Dualism - Our formal economy and sciefntic sector deal with advance
tech while the informal, the world of crft and biomass are treated as
lesser world with separate logic
o 4th Industrial revoultion
▪ theme of WEF in Davos
▪ Advances in Robotics, IoT, Big data, mobile telephony and
3d printing
▪ Opportunity of 4th IR - improving efficiency, profit for
investors, regenerating natural environment, tech transfer
▪ Challenges - require entrepreneurial wizardry, could be
ahead of reality, delver less than promised, long gestation
period, organisation unable to adopt, fragmented societies,
growing inequality, new security concern
▪ Suggestion - focus on connectivity, business environment
and education
o Economic problem of information age - 70% of us spend our time
planning what to make,
o All innovation is not creative, some is just destructive - Rober J
samuelson
o Impact on
▪ Social life - individuality, sex ratio disparity, crime, decline
of community life, psychic problem
▪ family life - joint family breakdown, informalsiation,
decrease in function of fmaily
 ▪ economic life - focus on profiteering, division of labour,
specialisation, economic depression, unemployment,
industrial disputes
▪ environment - disease, pollution
▪ religion - revivalism, communalism
▪ rural - sucidie, disparities
▪ tribal - alienation, indebtedneess, poverty
o Different technology - automobile, medical, nuclear, agriculture,
artificial, weapon., internet
• Importance
o The scientific method is perhaps the greatest arbiter of truth humanity
has ever devised.
o technology is the highest wealth generator in the shortest possible
period if it is deployed in the right direction. - kalam,2020
o Archimedes used mirrors to drive away Roman soldiers
o • Disinterested intellectual curiosity is the lifeblood of civilisation
o the science of today is the technology of tomorrow
o Cosmos - Carl sagan
▪ Pale blue dot
o The origin of species - Charles Darwin
o A brief History of time - Stephen Hawking
▪ why there should be a universe for the model to describe.
Why does the universe go to all the bother of existing?
o The selfish gene - richard dawkins
o Nothing has much power the broaden the mind as the ability o
investigate
o Social media is reducing social barriers
o With exploration being second nature to humans, it is expeditions such
as these that awaken curiosity and fire our interest in science.
o Asimov on Science -
▪ What characteristics the value of science is its
methodology, the system it uses to arrive at those
conclusions.
▪ A hundred sages, though speaking ever so wisely, can
never offer anything more persuasive that an imperative
“Believe!”
• Suggestion
 o We didn't automate the world to eliminate ourselves, we automate to
make live easy, and enjoyable.
o Complex situations cannot be managed with binary views on whether
a technology is right or not.
o Evolution of technologies and human assimilation of new capabilities
occur incrementally, leaving us to deal with periods of ambiguity and
many shades of grey.
o the government’s new Innovation Mission needs to be directed to
difficult Indian social, cultural, and economic situations, transporting
18th century living patterns directly into the 21st century - Indovation
o Foreign direct ideas should be as valued a commodity as traditional
FDI.
o Our resources need to be reallocated from outsourcing to innovation
o Make in India slogan requires Invent in India for newer technologies,
and for that you have to Discover in India.
o Living and working in space require accepting risks — and the journey
to Mars is worth the risks
o In the post-post-crisis world, fast fish will dominate – and slow fish will
die. firms will have to anticipate and respond to such trends - klaus
schwab
• Quotes
o As William Gibson said, "The future is already here — it's just not very
evenly distributed."
o The Wealth of the nation - adam smith
▪ “Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm
and superstition.”
o The matrix
o A short history of nearly everything - Bill Bryson
▪ “There are three stages in scientific discovery. First, people
deny that it is true, then they deny that it is important;
finally they credit the wrong person.”
o the most fundamental debate for our youth is the hyoid between
android, iOS or windows
Digital revolution
• Data
o Billion connections and 350 million smartphone suers and 422 million
internet subscribers
 o India ranks 118 on the e-Government Development Index as per the
United Nations e-Government Survey 2014.
• Issues
oGoogle before you Tweet is the new Think before you speak.
o “If it bleeds, it leads,” has been an adage in the newsroom.
o News has become noise
o Economic value new technologies has declined over time - John
Komlos (U-Munich)
o Social media is a symbol of technology maturing and not society
maturing
o Internet evokes a deep dilemma of whether ‘to govern or not’
o In the Net neutrality debate, there is a conflict between two core values:
ease of access and neutrality
o Professor Wu in The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information
Empires shows how the great information empires of the 20th century
have followed a clear and distinctive pattern: after the initial free
competition that follows a major technological innovation, one
corporate power or another emerges that takes control of the new
medium and operated what Professor Wu calls "the master switch".
o Ram avatar , ad daily wage worker live sir emote village in jharkhand -
no road, no mobile connectivity, no electricity
▪ if he needs photocopies of some vapes that he has to
mandatorily attached to avail benefits of government
scheme - he has to spend 250 rs - 200 rs worth of daily
wage, 40 rs for traveling and 10 rs for photocopy
▪ he can't get his andhra card made because due to intensive
labour - lines on his inside finders have changed over a
period of time - identity proofs often get rejected
o same story in Dhani poonia village in churu district of rajasthan with no
internet access - 9 hours annually spent bye each family on internet 40-
50 km aways - forgoes a day's wage
• Achievement
o Highlighting the importance of telecom services, Prime Minister
Narendra Modi in one of his speeches said that earlier people settled
around rivers but in coming days people will settle where broadband
connectivity will reach.
 o “The most fundamental debate for our youth now is the choice between
Android, iOS or Windows.”
o "Digital India" initiative is complimentary to RTI, because putting
information online brings transparency, which in turn, builds trust.
o India is on the cusp of a connectivity revolution
• Steps taken
o Twitter seva - Any start-up, which wants to access government
irrespective of any department, they can (put their queries).
• Suggestion
o XaaS - Everything as a service. Everything” (or X) covers governance,
health, education, agriculture, information and more, all of which can be
provided as a service on the cloud.
o Inform communicate and empower
Startups
• Data
o India has emerged as the youngest startup nation in the world with 72%
of the founders of startup under 35 years of age
o With the presence of more than 4,200 startups, the country has also
become the third largest startup base worldwide.
• Issues
• Importance
o Indians not only have a great learning capability but most of them also
have an entrepreneurial and competitive spirit.- Kalam, 2020
• Suggest
Security
• Data
• Issues
o Terrorism is the war of the poor, and war is the terrorism of the rich.--
Sir Peter Alexander Ustinov, CBE
o Terrorism is a tactic of demanding the impossible and demanding it at a
gunpoint
o Previously it was a bomb explosion, impossible to caputre on phone
▪ Terror today can be anything, anywhere
o Terror is no longer a slow poison that seeps over decades into lives. It is
immediate, ruthless and furious; a bomb on Aleppo causes an Ankara
shoot-out.
 o While terrorism is spreading at a global level, government are thinking
at national level or even department level
o Twin towers of terororism - AQ and ISIS
o "What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the
homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought in the name of
totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy?” - Gandhi
o Mao’s dictum “power grows out of the barrel of a gun"
• Importance
o We make war so that we may live in peace
o I don't know how world war 3 will be fought but world war 4th will
decently be fought with ticks and stones - einstein
o Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind -
john kennedy
o At the end of the day, goals are simple - safety and security
o terrorism works. It doesn't fail. It works. Violence usually works. That's
world history. - Noam Chomsky
o If there is a sin in the world, it is weakness; avoid all weakness,
weakness is sin, weakness is deasth - Vivekananda
• Suggestion
o Terrorism is spurious growth in a beautiful garden, if it is mere cut it
would come up again, thus it need to be completely uprooted.
o Best way to fight terrorism is by fighting basic needs of humanity i.e.
hunger, poverty and education
o Let us wage a moral and political war against war itself
o Our war is against poverty and inequality
o A Farewell to Arms - Hemingway
▪ “War is not won by victory.'
o UNSCR 1540 established the proliferation and possession of WMD by
non state actor as a threat to International peace and security
o -R-1267 pertains to setting up a sanction committee which can be
petitioned for proscribing terrorist organizations
o R- 1373 - banning of terrorist movement, freezing the finances
o There are no victors in the war - MAD theory
o Loka Samasta Sukhino Bhavantu -(Let the whole world be prosperous
and peaceful)
o Aurelius is "The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.
• Quotes
 o “Peace and Justice are two sides of the same coin.” Eisenhower
o "The military sphere and the civil sphere are wholly distinct; you can't
handle an army in kid gloves.” - Sun Tzu
o "Humanity and justice are the principles on which to govern a state, but
not an army; opportunism and flexibility, on the other hand, are military
rather than civil virtues to assimilate the governing of an army”- Sun
Tzu
o Land of thousand mutinies
International Relations
• Data
• Issues
o Clash of civilisation - Samuel huntington
▪ people's cultural and religious identities will be the primary
source of conflict in the post-Cold War world.
▪ future wars would be fought not between countries, but
between cultures, and that Islamic extremism would
become the biggest threat to world peace.
o In this world only strength is respected - Kalam
o Democracy has been US's deadliest export
o Glocalization - MacD serving Veg in Navratra, Channel V and MTV
playing bollywood songs
o Today’s world leaders appear to lack the statesmanship, the breadth of
vision, and the generosity of spirit of those who created the post-1945
world order.
o While there hasn’t been a major global conflict since World War II, not
one conflict that has erupted in recent years has been resolved
o world has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscienc
e. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants
o "Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided
missiles and misguided men."
o Washington consensus - 10 economic policy prescription considered to
consititute the standard reform package promote for crisis wrecked
developing countries
o Ethical concern in International trade
▪ No ethical code of conduct
▪ Protectionism
 ▪ Economic considerations ahead of environmental
considerations
▪ Rights of farmers
▪ Ideological clashes
▪ MNC lobbying
▪ Dumping activity
▪ Trafficking
▪ Drug pricing
▪ Human rights related
▪ IPR related
▪ Cartels
• Achievemnt
o Ballot is stronger than the bullet - Abraham Lincoln
o In 2015 we celebrated 60 years of panchseel
o If power used to flow from the barrel of a gun, in an increasingly inter-
dependent economic world, hard and soft power derive from a war-
chest of foreign exchange reserves. - Economic survey 2015
• Importance
o Macdonald theory of international relations - two country with
Macdonald would never fight as they are economically closely
intertwined
o international relations is all about three things: war and the avoidance of
conflict; migration and the management of the movement of people; and
trade,
o in international relationships, there are no permanent friends or
permanent enemies; only permanent interests
o ‘Material well-being is supreme,’ wrote Kautilya in the fourth-century
BCE Arthasastra. Twenty-five centuries later, we may have returned to
his timeless wisdom.
o an increasingly confident India is now using all its limited capacity and
is willing to engage with even adversaries to advance its own interests
while simultaneously hedging its bets against the adversary.
o History could be changed, not geography - ABV
o Old Chinese saying — “Close neighbours are better than distant
relatives”.
• Suggestion
o Respect for life should guide international ethics, in thought , word and
deed. when that day comes when we respect the right to life of unborn,
it will be the day of universal peace. If you have to make a choice of
what kind of world you want to live in you would choose a world that
protects the weakest of the weak and least disadvantaged
o Interests are sideways flexible, principles are rigid. A country should
pursue its interest rather than principles in today's time
o In the words of President John F Kennedy at the Canadian Parliament:
“Geography has made us neighbours; history has made us friends;
economics has made us partners; and necessity has made us allies.”
▪ In context of India and Pakistan - Geography has made us
neighbours but history has made us enemies; economics
can make us partners and necessity can make us allies
o It was Buddha who conquered the world, not Alexander - Tagore
o crimes may win an empire, they do not win glory. -Machiavelli
o Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years
▪ The fact of the matter is everybody compromises. Even the
Israelis compromise
▪ Humility is a virtue, pride a vice; We comes from God, I
from the Devil.
o The Ambassador's club - Krishna V Rajan
▪ Morarji Desai is thus the only recipient so far of the
Nishan-e-Pakistan and the Bharat Ratna.
o Chocies - shiv shankar menon
▪ Finding the balance between rivalry and incentives for
good behavior, between competition and cooperation, is
among the hardest tasks in strategy.
▪ India’s goal is to transform India.
▪ Indira Gandhi once said, “India will be a different power”
and will continue to walk its own path in the world. That is
the only responsible way for us.
o New panchsheel for 21st century - Manmohan Singh
▪ Indias development priority will determine its engagement
with the world
▪ India's development prospect are now and for the future
inexorably linked to the world economy
 ▪ India cannhooe to create a beneficial global economic and
security environment for itself by working with all major
powers
▪ India will have to build and ensure greater regional
cooperation and connectivity
o Panchamrit of BJP
▪ Samman
▪ Samvad
▪ Samruddhi
▪ Suraksha
▪ Sanskriti
o India need tis tart bridling a network of resource contacts inside …… by
using the economic means or through cultural penetration -
▪ ……. love for bollywood movies and the popularity of
yoga
o increase connectivity
o know thy adversary
o think go strategic interest in hard headed fashion - cold blooded realistic
assessment of its own strategic interest in an anarchic international
system
• Quotes
o historic speech about India’s ‘tryst with destiny’, Nehru, speaking of his
country’s dreams, said: ‘Those dreams are for India, but they are also
for the world, for all the nations and peoples are too closely knit
together today for any one of them to imagine that it can live apart.
Peace has been said to be indivisible; so is freedom, so is prosperity
now, and so also is disaster
Economy
• Data
o Growing at 10% will transform India – India will be a $10 trillion
economy with no poverty in 2032
o fiscal deficit to 3.5 per cent of GDP in 2016-17.
o India likely to be their largest economy by 2028 - HSBC
o India remains the most competitive country in South Asia, appearing at
No. 40 in the global competitiveness ranking of 137 countries by the
World Economic Forum (WEF).- 2017
• Issues
 o likely to remain in what the IMF calls the “new mediocre,” Larry
Summers calls “secular stagnation,” and the Chinese call the “new
normal.”
o informal economy may account for only 40 % of (India’s) GDP, it
employs 90 % of workers
o Polih economist Kaleccki said for India “ There were too many
exploited and too few explioters"
o The World is flat - Thomas L Friedman
▪ account of the great changes taking place in our time, as
lightning-swift advances in technology & communications
put people all over the globe in touch as never before--
creating an explosion of wealth in India & China, &
challenging the rest to run even faster just to stay in place
o Our economy is based on spending billions to persuade people that
happiness is buying things, - pHILIP SLATER
o Oxfam report on inequality
▪ 8 richest person on earth holds as much wealth as bottom
50%
▪ India - Top 1% holds as much wealth as the theld by 58%
of the Indian population
o NCRCW - identifies inequality as major issue
o what we now see among our politicians ‘is a strong consensus for weak
reforms.” - Montek singh Alhuwalia (In context of Indian politics)
o big reason for our struggle lies in our inability to push through and
implement critical ideas. - Nandan Nilekani
• Achievement
o India has grown at about 4.5 percent per capita for thirty seven years,
which is an impressive achievement - ES
o India has replaced China as top destination for foreign direct investment
by attracting $63 billion worth FDI projects in 2015, says a report
o PMJDY accounts with balances now exceed 60%, with zero-balance
accounts constituting less than 40%
o India’s economic revolution since 1990 has been a “people-driven
transformation.” - Nandan Nilekani
o Important numbers - Eco survey
▪ Real GDP at 7.2%
▪ CPI at 3.4%
 ▪ WPI at 3.4%
▪ Agri growth rate is 4.1%
▪ Fiscal deficit target 3.5%
▪ External sector
▪ CAD declined to 0.3$
o Capital - Thomas Piketty
▪ Piketty shows that modern economic growth and the
diffusion of knowledge have allowed us to avoid
inequalities on the apocalyptic scale predicted by Karl
Marx.
o Bangalore and Hyderabad are probably the only cities in the world
where you could hire 1,000 Hadoop programmers in a week.
o Lucas Chancel and Thomas Piketty on inequality in India - From
British Raj to Billionaire Raj
▪ top 1% of earners captured less than 21% of total income in
the late 1930s, before dropping to 6% in the early 1980s
and rising to 22% today.”
▪ in the 1950s-1970s period, - strong market regulations and
high fiscal progressivity were implemented
▪ in the mid 1980s - development of pro-business policies,
▪ since the early 1980s, growth has been highly unevenly
distributed within the top 10% group.
▪ reveals the unequal nature of liberalisation and deregulation
processes. India in fact comes out as a country with one of
the highest increase in top 1% income share concentration
over the past thirty years
• Importance
o Economics can always open the door to politics. - Tharoor
o Marx wrote that it is not political needs but economic needs of mankind
that would ultimately lead to a communist society at the end of human
history
o India is, today, a uniquely attractive investment destination, driven by a
rare alignment of political, economic, demographic and geopolitical
considerations
• Suggestion
o Frugal economy - maker movement and peer to peer sharing (THIS
IS GOLD)
 o “Pursuing protectionism is just like locking one’s self in a dark room.
Wind and rain may be kept outside, but so are light and air.”
o Development has to result in jobs. What we need is not just more
production, but mass production and production by masses - PM
o Leapfrogging not just in digital sector but elsewhere too - agriculture
(the organic movement), health (prevention, instead of just
treatment), Solid Waste Management (‘recycle, reuse, reduce’ instead
of ‘dump’)
o Vehicle planning is as important as family planning
o While evidence-based policy-making may be good for business and the
tech industry, it is only politics-driven policy-making that can make a
positive difference to people’s lives.
o Bigger numbers do not automatically lead to bigger happiness, bigger
rewards, bigger anything in life.
o Happiness is the new GDP
o circular economy - gandhi suggested
▪ manufacturing led take make dispose model is simply
unsustainable
▪ circula economy - take make refurbish repaid reuse model -
create jobs around the product it makes rather than find
ways to create more jobs making those products
• Quotes
o Thomas Pikkety - Inherited wealth and investment capital will grow
faster than the income - factor that explains the concentration of wealth
o The big Short - Michael Lewis
▪ tells the story of four outsiders in the world of high-finance
who predict the credit and housing bubble collapse before
anyone else.
o The Black Swan - Nicholas Taleb
▪ A black swan is a highly improbable event with three
principal characteristics: It is unpredictable; it carries a
massive impact; and, after the fact, we concoct an
explanation that makes it appear less random, and more
predictable, than it was.
o 1-2
▪ Farm - Non farm
▪ Rural - urban
 ▪ Unorganised - organised
▪ subsistence - decent wage
▪ self employment - wage employment
o Demonetisation is a creative distraction of destructive creation -
Subbarao
Agriculture
• Data
o the share of the agriculture sector in the overall GDP has declined from
16.80 percent in 2007-08 to 13.94 percent in 2013-14.
• Issues
• Achievement
o Farmers are revered as “Annadata” i.e, provider of food in our country
• Importance
o Future belongs to countries with grains, not guns: M S Swaminathan
• Suggestion
o Swasth Dhara, Khet Hara - Healthy earth, green farm (Aimed at
boosting farm productivity)
o The need of the hour is a gene revolution
o Foodgrain productivity must rise from 2 tons per hectare to 3 tons per
hectare - PM
o Tehsil should be the unit of agricultural development - PM
o Agriculture - doubling the income of farmers by 2022
o According to the PM, agriculture has to stand on three pillars —
paramparagat kheti (traditional agriculture), diversification into agro-
forestry by planting trees on the boundaries of farmers’ fields, and
encouraging livestock and bee-keeping, duly supported by food
processing.
o Second Green Revolution can only take off With a Marketing
Revolution
o Increasing productivity by getting “more from less”.
o Agriculture needs to be treated as a business that has to be managed
professionally. Instead, it is treated as a social-welfare programme.
• Quotes
Health
• Data
 o India has the largest number of medical colleges in the world and is
among the largest producers of doctors. Approximately 15,000 new
doctors qualify every year.
o India is the fourth largest producer of medicines in the world and is also
a large exporter of medicines.
o About five lakh people die from tuberculosis every year. This number
is almost unchanged since Independence!
o Almost two million cases of malaria are reported every year and this
number isn’t decreasing.
o every government hospital serves an estimated 61,000 people in india,
with one bed for every 1833 people.
o Every government allopathic doctor serves a population of over 11,000
people, with Bihar and Maharashtra having the worst ratios.
o WHO report on health workforce in India - 20 lakh health workers for
the population of 1.02 billion in 2001. 57% doesnt have any
qualification, 22.8% ayush
o National health account estimate (govt report) - Indians spent eight
times more on private hospitals and twice as much on transporting
patients compared to costs in government hospitals.
o Public spending on health care is very low, constituting around 29% of
total expenditure, 69% expenditure is OOP,
• Issues
o For most of the population of the country, health is a productive asset.
Falling sick puts a double burden on them - they are not able to earn and
they have to incur extra expenditure for treatment
o public healthcare spending in India, at about 1% of GDP, is the lowest
when compared to China’s 3%, Brazil’s 4.1% and 8.3% of the US.
o Health priorate sae chanigng
o emergence of private health care industry
o increasing out of pocket expensidutre
o enhanced fiscal resources with the government
• Importance
o NHP 1983
o NHP 2002
• Suggest
o 6. Lessons from Mexico: The “Benefit Model” of Mexico focuses on
health issues of different demographic groups with insurance back-up.
 o 7. Lessons from Cuba: Financed and structured by the government with
more focus on primary care, sanitation,nutrition and strong delivery
mechanism. It has outpaced US in health indicators.
o 1. Lessons from Tamil Nadu: Universal access to affordable drugs and
quality human medical resource training that cater to all age-group
health issues.
o 2. Lessons from West Bengal: In 2004, a public health administrative
cadre was established to revamp public health planning and
management capacity.
o Need for “Swasth bahrat” campaign like “swacch Bharat"
o Rights based approach to health is enshrined in international treaties and
conventions as well as national constitutions all over the worldo
o Mohalla clinic in Delhi where diagnostic tests can at least be conducted
cheaply and locally.
o Health for all
o Accountability and affordability
• Quotes
o in its fight against polio, India has shown the world that when its people
set an ambitious goal, mobilize the country, and measure the impact,
India's promise is endless.- Bill gates
Ethics and Morals
• Issue
o Things that will destry us - gandhi's 7 sin
o We have broader hghways but narrower viewpoints
o Thinking fast and slow - Daniel Kahneman
▪ Systematic errors are known as biases,
o Failures of personal integrity, once revealed, are rarely forgotten. -
Lying
o Human behaviour
▪ Reciprocity - Smile, Abuse, Appreciation
▪ Flows from 3 mains sources - desire, emotions and
knowledge
o Hatred - results in chaos
▪ even after so many wars , no peace in the world
o Depression, aggression and addiction - three sign of mass neurosis in
younger generation
• Importance
 o Karmaphala Siddhanta: As you sow, so you reap.
o Your attitude determine your altitude - Stephen covey
o A good head and good heart is a formidable combining - Nelson
Mandela
o It's not how much you lived in life but how much life did you had in
those years that matters - Lincoln
o Bhagwat Gita
▪ It was Vyasa’s genius to take the whole great Mahabharata
epic and see it as metaphor for the perennial war between
the forces of light and the forces of darkness in every
human heart.
▪ The law of karma states simply that every event is both a
cause and an effect.
o The Old man and the sea - Hemingway
▪ “A man can be destroyed but not defeated.”
o Paulo choelo
▪ when you want something, all the universe conspires in
helping you to achieve it.”
▪ ‘The secret of happiness is to see all the marvels of the
world, and never to forget the drops of oil on the spoon.’”
• Suggest
o Thinking Fast and Slow -Daniel Kahneman
▪ Kahneman takes us on a groundbreaking tour of the mind
and explains the two systems that drive the way we think.
System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is
slower, more deliberative, and more logical.
o Paulo cohelo - beauty of life is failing seven times and getting up eighth
time
o Learn from yesterday, live for today and hope for tomorrow - Einstein
o Meditations - mARCUS aURELIUS
▪ Don’t waste the rest of your time here worrying about other
people—unless it affects the common good.
▪ “Objective judgment . . . Unselfish action . . . Willing
acceptance . . . of all external events.”
▪ be tolerant with others and strict with yourself.
o Lying - Sam Harris
 ▪ Honesty is a gift we can give to others. It is also a source of
power and an engine of simplicity. Knowing that we will
attempt to tell the truth,
▪ Ethical transgressions are generally divided into two
categories: the bad things we do (acts of commission) and
the good things we fail to do (acts of omission)
o Vinod rai - not just an accountant
▪ Righteousness can be injected by only three great people up
to the age of seventeen—a father and a mother in a spiritual
environment, and a good primary school teacher.
▪ where there is righteousness in the heart, there is beauty in
character.
▪ Can governments and institutions create good human
beings? The answer I arrive at is: no, not at all. The process
has to start in homes and schools.
▪ two Hydra-headed monsters—bribery and extortion—
which emerge out of rampant corruption.
▪ We excel in cut-and-paste solutions
o darkest hour of the night came just before the dawn. - Paulo cohelo
• Quotes
o Anything that is more than required is poison - Buddha
o Any virtue in its extreme form becomes a vice
o Love thy neighbour as thyself - Holy bible
o Knowledge without integrity is dangerous. Ex- Osama Bin Laden
o Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars- Les
Brown
o Morality -in both public and private spaces is a premium in our society
▪ While in the west as a person goes higher up in position of
authority, he develops respect for law , the opposite is true
for our country.
o most beautiful things in life can't be measured. they are immeasurable.
e.g. - love, truth
o we can still forgive children when they are afraid of darkness, real
tragedy when men fear light
o Gandhi Ji – “Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong”.
o Haruki Murakami’s “pain is inevitable, suffering is optional” is the best
mantra to opt for.
o “Every saint has a past and every sinner a future”. - Oscar Wilde
o Performance = Ability*Motivation or =Drive*Direction
o Let us remember the Golden Rule: "Do unto others as you would have
them do unto you” - Pope
o Goals must take precedence over means where questions of human life
are involved. - Amartya sen, An Idea of justice
o Manasa, Vacha, Karmana — “ when what you think, what you say, and
what you do are in harmony.” - this is my happiness
o For an idealist: Mahatma Gandhi represented his "dream", Nehru his
'desire" and Subhash Bose his "deed".
o Abraham Lincoln said "you can fool some people all the time and all of
the people some time but you can't fool all the people all the time."
o “All my best ideas were born of anger,” says children’s rights- activist
and Nobel Peace prize winner Kailash Satyarthi
o If you judge people you’ll have no time to love them - Mother Teresa
o Peace begins with a smile - Mother teresa
o Men will not look at things as they really are, but as they wish them to
be—and are ruined. - Machiavelli
o Truth is tied with responsibility
o Facts do not cease to exist if they are ignored - Aldous Huxley
o John F Kennedy in mind - "ask not what your country can do for you,
ask what you can do for your country"
o The views I submit to you are those I have adopted. They are not
original.- Gandhi
o I have learnt to use the word ‘impossible’ with the greatest caution. —
Wernher Von Braun
o To believe in something and not live it is intellectual dishonesty -
Gandhi
o Tagore often quoted - "Change needs to begin with one".You have to
dream before your dreams can come true. - Kalam
o To succeed in your mission, you must have single-minded devotion to
your goal. - Kalam
o We should not give up and we should not allow the problem to defeat
us. - Kalam
o Real kindness seeks no return; What return can the world make to rain
clouds? - thiruvalluvar
 o Even the ignorant may appear very worthy, If they keep silent before
the learned.- thiruvalluvar
o Pen is mightier than the sword
o If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself
o A chain is only as strong as its weakest link
o Necessity is the mother of invention
o Keep your friends close and your enemies closer
o Fortune favours the bold
o When the going gets tough, the tough gets going
o Two wrongs don’t make a right
o To err is human, to forgive devine
o Health is wealth
o Heights by great man reached and kept, were not obtained by sudden
flight; while you slept, they were toiling in the night
o Honesty is the best policy
o Problem shared is problem halved
o We are what we think All that we are arises With our thoughts With our
thoughts We make our world. — The Buddha
o “When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, Sir?” -
John Maynard Keynes
o Tagore often quoted - "Change needs to begin with one".
Materialism
• Issue
o everybody seeks pleasure and scarcely any one finds it,- Voltaire,
Candide
o Men have become tools of their tools
o Health is valued when sickness arrives
o From infancy to employment, this is a life-denying, love-denying
mindset, informed not by joy or contentment, but by an ambition that is
both desperate and pointless, for it cannot compensate for what it
displaces: childhood, family life, the joys of summer, meaningful and
productive work, a sense of arrival, living in the moment
o In the cause of self-advancement, we are urged to sacrifice our leisure,
our pleasures and our time with partners and children, to climb over the
bodies of our rivals and to set ourselves against the common interests of
humankind. And then? We discover that we have achieved no greater
satisfaction than that with which we began.
 • Suggest
o “To live fully, we must use things and love people, not love things and
use people.” Powell John
o “If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then
there would be peace.” John Lennon
• Quotes
Globalisation
• Issue
o Bhopal gas tragedy is the darkest reflection of globalisation where
modern technology was brought into a country with archaic legal set up
causing tremendous pain.
o Social change, - Social dumping,
o cultural change,
o economic change
o European countries have campaigned against the threat of
americanisation
o shiva sena activists protesting against valentine day
o Globalisation Trilemma - Dani Rodrik -describes a situation where
only two of the three things can hold true at the same time (gds)
- Economic globalization, Political democracy, National sovereignty
• importance
o Arguing against gloablsiaiton is like arguing against gravity - Kofi
annan
o Deepen market insights: think local, while going global.
o Jeans represent democracy in fashion
o Consider a person drinking turkish coffee in istanbul - the coffee
originated in ethpia, the sugar in ini , the porcelain up in china, the table
cloth made of cotton from egypt, the restaurant itself is a french
invention - depicts gloablsiaiton
o Thank you for being alte- thomas L freidman
▪ Friedman returns to his Minnesota childhood and sketches
a world where politics worked and joining the middle class
was an achievable goal. Today, by contrast, it is easier than
ever to be a maker (try 3-D printing) or a breaker (the
Islamic State excels at using Twitter), but harder than ever
to be a leader or merely "average." Friedman concludes that
nations and individuals must learn to be fast (innovative
 and quick to adapt), fair (prepared to help the casualties of
change), and slow (adept at shutting out the noise and
accessing their deepest values).
▪ A parallel explosion of economic interdependency has
created new riches as well as spiraling debt burdens.
• Suggest
o our cultural tradition has been wary of the kupamanduka, the frog that li
ves its whole life within a well, knows nothing else, and is suspicious of
everything outside it.
o Think globally, act locally
o hybrid culture - third culture
• Quote
o in nutshell we can say gloablsiaiton contain both the flower and the
thorn and herfroe the responsibilities of modern government are to
manage them and curtail them in creative manner.
Sports
• It can be said with some amount of pride that india has reached a stage where
two contender vie for one spot at olympics - Suhsil Kumar and Narasingh yadav
• There is an element of pride also in the way India dictates to the rest of the world in
cricketing matters. The Indian fan is today the most important entity in world cricket
• Games doesn't have ethics involved but sports does
Authors/Philosophers
• Gandhi
o sarvodaya - upliftment and progress of all
o believed in action- constructive programs
o Unity of means and ends unlike others who emphasise one of them
o Self control
o “Gandhi was the best policemen British and in India” - Ellen Wilkinson
o “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” – Mahatma Gandhi
o He always use to spin charkha, even while talking to people. Never
wasting a single second of his time and being of some service to the
society, nation and mankind
o Gandhiji wanted independent India to be an oceanic circle and not a
pyramid
o Gandhi 7 sin
▪ Wealth without work - speculative market
▪ Pleasure without conscience - politicians taking time off
 ▪commerce without morality - global financial crisis,
conditionalities of IMF
▪ Knowledge without character - insider trading
▪ Science without humanity - Nuclear power
▪ worships without sacrifice - rigidity in religion, religious
intolerance
▪ politics without principle (Political morality cant be based
on law alone) - caste based politics
o Gandhi on self realisation - What i want to achieve– what I have been
striving and pining to achieve these thirty years– is self-realization
o those who say that religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what
religion means.
o the essence of religion is morality.
o The seeker after truth should be humbler than the dust.
• Vivekanada
o Stress on eudcation
o Self assertion of Indian idneitity - Patriotic
o cultural rejuvenation
o orator by divine right
o yogic temperament
• Socrates
o Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.
o Strong minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, weak minds
discuss people.”
o “Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.”
• Plato
o Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.”
o We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy
of life is when men are afraid of the light.
o The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled
by evil men
o The measure of a man is what he does with power.
o Courage is knowing what not to fear.
o Necessity is the mother of invention.”
o Character is simply habit long continued.”
o “Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder”
• Aristotle
 o It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought
without accepting it.”
o What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.
o Happiness depends upon ourselves.”
o Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and
end of human existence.”
o Excellence is never an accident.
o The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living differ
from the dead.”
o “Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.”
o “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts
o “Anybody can become angry — that is easy, but to be angry with the
right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the
right purpose, and in the right way — that is not within everybody's
power and is not easy.”
• Kautilya
“The arrow shot by the archer may or may not kill a single person. But
o
stratagems devised by wise men can kill even babies in the womb.”
o `“Every neighbouring state is an enemy and the enemy’s enemy is a
friend.”
• Thomas A. Edison
o I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that don't work
o Genius is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration
• Mark Twain
o It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world
and moral courage so rare.
o If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything
o The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot
read.
• Einstein
o Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a
tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.
o Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep
moving.
o Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.
• John F Kennedy
 o “Without debate, without criticism no administration and no country
can succeed and no republic can survive.
o We need men who can dream of things that never were
o The supreme reality of our time is the vulnerability of our planet
o A journey to Thousand miles begins with one step
• Leo Tolstoy
o Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing
himself.
o Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it.
Miscellaneous
• Bollywood’s dominance offers an object lesson to all those who wish to legislate
language
• three dimensions of the “energy triangle” — affordability, environmental
sustainability, security and access.
• Sapiens - Yuval Noah harari
o Culture tends to argue that it forbids only that which is unnatural. But
from a biological perspective, nothing is unnatural. Whatever is
possible is by definition also natural. A truly unnatural behaviour, one
that goes against the laws of nature, simply cannot exist, so it would
need no prohibition.
o Revolutions are, by definition, unpredictable. A predictable revolution
never erupts.
• Siddhartha - Herman Hess
o wisdom cannot be passed on. knowledge can.
• The Haindmaid's tale - Margaret Atwood
o There is more than one kind of freedom, said Aunt Lydia. Freedom to
and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you
are being given freedom from. Don't underrate it.
• Parliamentarian:: GK Gokhale and Sushma Swaraj
• Sportsperson:: Rahul Dravid. Michael Jordan
• Activists:: Hazare, Baba Amte, Lalit Mehta, Dayanand Saraswati, Narendra
Dabholkar
• Social service
o Abdul Sattar Edhi- largest ambulance service, serving everyone beyond
caste, creed, belief in a divided country like Pakistan
• Child Rights:: Kailash Satyarthi
• Reformers
 o Rammohan roy
o Bose
o Ambedkar
o MLK
• Fundamental attribution error
o for example - if a person is overweight over first assumption might be
that they have a problem with overeating or are lazy.
o if someone drop their notes on the floor we assume that they are
disorganised and clumsy
o we perceive other's behaviour to be driven by internal causes
▪ give sundae emphasis on internal causes
o also called actor-observe bias
• Just world hypothesis
o Good thing happens to good people
• Self serving hypothesis
o if a person is promoted than it is due to his ability and competence and
if he doesn't get promotes it is because the manager does not like
him/her
• Skill India
o 22 year old Narayani enrolled in digital literacy mission. She become
interest dincomuter and decided to pursue advanced course in nearby
town. She realised the the lack of jobs in areas near her home would be
a problem . So she bought a compute ron loan under government
scheme and open a computer training center by herself in her single
room rented house creating access to computer education for other local
women
• Movies
o Gangajal - Police reforms
o Sairat
▪ caste
▪ honour killling
o Margarita with a straw - disability
o Pink
▪ Minal vs Rajveer
▪ (amitabh) Deepak criticizes the regressed views of the
society where women are stereotyped as prostitutes if they
come home late, move out of their home, want to be
 independent, drink and so on, but none of these apply to
men. In his closing remarks, Deepak mentions that his
client said “no”. No means no and does not require further
explanation.
o Toilet ek Prem katha - cleanliness, superstitions, rural development
▪ a group of women go to a field, away from their village in
the wee hours to defecate in the open
▪ Kehsav's father (Panditji) is a very religious and
superstitious priest, and he believes that his son's marriage
to a black buffalo will help improve Keshav's fortune.
▪ Keshav's father and the sarpanch arrange to demolish the
toilet while Keshav is still asleep. But Keshav wakes up
before the toilet is completely destroyed and protects it
from complete demolition.
▪ Jaya now files for a divorce in the local court citing the
unavailability of a toilet in her husband's house as the
primary reason for seeking divorce. Due to its sheer
absurdity, the case gets a lot of media attention
▪ Keshav's father remains steadfast on his decision to not
have a toilet in his house, until one day, his mother, while
going out to defecate, falls on the doorstep, injures her hip
and cries vehemently that she can't possibly walk to the
fields to defecate, and that she must use the toilet that
Keshav constructed in the front yard.
▪ He then realises that a toilet is indeed a critical requirement
within a household.
▪ satirical comedy in support of governmental campaigns to
improve the sanitation conditions, with an emphasis on the
eradication of open defecation, especially in rural areas
o Newton
▪ Newton Kumar goes to conflict-ridden jungles
of Chhattisgarh, India to conduct elections
▪ voters do not turn up for the election.
▪ foreign journalist
▪ forced villagers to vote
▪ fake attack of naxals
▪ taking duty seriously - beaten up by security forces
o Hindi Medium
▪ How RTE act has become RT Schooling act -
o Rang de Basanti - candle light sequence - group of students who
protest against the government and the fighter MIG planes used by the
Air Force after the death of their friend in a plane crash. . people came
forward to talk about corruption and bureaucracy and their inefficiency
in providing basic amenities. Public activism on matters of public
interest
o Chak de India - talks about religion, sexism, India partition, regional
prejudice, emotions and lot more through field hockey. women hockey
o Taare Zameen Par - movie beautifully captures life of Ishaan, a dyslexic
kid who struggles everyday to do simple things of life. As simple as
tying a shoe lace. It spread a message to all those families who want
their kid to excel in everything – every kid is different and has different
needs
o 3 idiots - movie gives a message that education doesn’t require money,
uniform, big schools and colleges, all it requires is the strong will to
study. The story also focuses on how the education system should look
beyond high grades and should focus on what a kid wants to do.
o swades - focuses on the issue of brain drain and Indians moving abroad for
greener pastures. his visit to a village changes his life along with hundreds of other
villagers. The movie inspired a lot of NRIs to come back to the roots and work for
the country. The movie gives a message that a little help from the fortunate and
educated ones can help the underprivileged to a great extent.
o prem Rog - rishi kapur , padmini kolhapure - widow remarriage
o Oh My God - God loving and not govt fearing - fooled by messages of god
o Udaan - tells the story of thousands of youths from India’s middle-class families,
who want to break free and follow their dreams.
o achoot kanya - 1936 film deals with the social position of Dalit girls and
is considered a reformist period-piece. The story portrays a love story of
a Brahmin Boy and a Harijan (Untouchable) girl. At the time when
people were discriminated on the basis of their caste, this movie sets a
good example of how every human being is equal and love knows no
boundaries.
o Pakeeza - prositituion - inside world of sex worker and their lives and
tragedies
o Matrubhoomi - social issue of female foeticide . showcases the future of
the country if we keep killing the girl child. There are still many places
where a boy’s birth is rejoiced while a girl child is killed. The movie
revolves around the story of a girl who is married to five brothers. The
movie portrays the glimpse of the cruel society and leaves a message of
saving a girl child.
o Vicky Donor - sperm donation
o Lajja -
o My brother nikhil - movie deals with the stigma associated with
HIV/AIDS as well as the coming out of a closeted gay relationship.
o Mother India - Dealing with the social and cultural changes taking place
in India shortly after independence, Mother India had a powerful impact
on the citizens of India. Nargis portrayed the character of the a widowed
Indian woman who raises her kids with much difficulty. The movie
focuses on the power of “good” as the mother kills her own son when
he crosses the line and goes on a wrong path.
o Peepli Live - media, farmer sucides
o Nayak - youth in politics
o Dangal: Condition of sportsperson in India, female inequality, Male
chauvinism
o The Lunchbox - It actually was a movie that hit too close to many a
people living in this busy world and trying to win the rat-race. But it
also explores how in life, nothing is as bad as it seems and the best way
to live is to move on. 'Moving on' is the solution to happiness.
o Hazaro Khwaesihis aisi - explores red tapism in our society, the
corruption in the government and how a man is demotivated enough to
stop caring about changing society. It also shows how a woman's love
and strength can fuel her determination and her dedication towards a
cause.